Bank Of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan has continued to maintain his bank has “a right to make a profit.”.
When he was 17 years old, he heard that a new branch of the Virginia Commonwealth Bank was offering a lifetime of free checking for new customers.
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo followed suit and also dropped plans to institute monthly fees, CBS News reports.
Whitten then called BofA, only to be told the lifetime free promotion had expired.
BofA checked out the file said Whitten was right about his free checking.
He told Bay Area ABC news affiliate that the new branch had a promotion in place where if you opened an account right then youd be guaranteed free checking for life.
While many banks and credit unions market their checking accounts as free, consumers are paying more fees than ever.
The bank refunded him $168 in fees that started accruing in the fall and told the news station: We typically honor legacy free checking account agreements, as we have done in this case.
Uffelman says he finds it interesting that
when Bank of America suggested it was going
to charge $5 a month for using a debit
card “everybody went berserk.
In 2011, Bank of America announced that it would begin charging a $5 monthly fee for accounts that use a debit card.
Still, according to a recent Bankrate survey, about 75 percent of credit unions offer no fee checking accounts compared to about 45 percent of banks.
The American Bankers Association estimates the typical checking account annually costs banks $250 to $300 to maintain.
So regardless of whether you choose a bank or credit union, free checking accounts may cost a small fortune.
Alan Whitehead is a business journalist based in Los Angeles, California. Alan has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Alan spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
