There are a lot of reasons to switch from Bank of America. They back the North Dakota Pipeline. They stopped giving money to Shakespeare in the Park after their Julius Ceasar play which promoted non-violence in a democracy.
However, while those are important big picture ideas, it is important to ask yourself if switching will also cost you money. If they are evil, are they at least saving you money? Well, no.. you are paying for evil and the evil company is actually ripping you off. What’s in it for you is that Bank of America is costing you money. If you are in the middle class there are better banks that charge you fewer fees.
Overdraft Fees
Let’s look at overdraft protectionoverdraft protection. The bank will overcharge you four times a day for your overcharges without asking your permission. They don’t even call this overcharge protection which is what they call that in Federal Reserve which created a rule for you to have to opt-in to that which Bank of America doesn’t follow and instead, they created Insufficient Funds fee which charges you same $35 fee each time someone wants to charge your card but you don’t have enough in the account! They force you to get their overcharge protection by linking your savings account. They then charge you $12 per transaction. You can take a look to
They force you to get their overcharge protection by linking your savings account. They then charge you $12 per transaction. You can take a look to Wells Fargo which sadly also has this horrible insufficient charge fee but at least they will only charge you three times a day instead of four. They also have a $12 fee to link to your savings account but at least they charge you once a day instead of each time someone tries to charge your card.
ATM Fee
Most banks will charge you for an non-Bank ATM fee. Most banks will charge you for using your ATM abroad. However, BofA will charge you 3% on top of the fee!
Checking Account Fee
If that wasn’t enough, then just know this: if you have less than $1500 in your Bank of America checking account, you will be charged $12 a statement. That’s $144 a year for a checking account. An account that doesn’t come with free checks but with a lot of fees.
Conversely with Wells Fargo, as long as you use your debit card, your account is free.
Other Reasons
- Their website sucks! Everything is small, everything is hidden. Their updated ap is ok but it was horrible as well.
- Their customer service is not so hot. I once had to call them for months on end just to get a simple form mailed to me.
- Less locations than others. I chose Wells Fargo because almost every grocery store has a location. So now I will have less driving around to find the bank AND probably less use of non-bank ATM which will again: SAVE ME MONEY!
So, you could be giving your money to a large corporation that calls itself Bank of America but doesn’t seem to care about Americans. Or you could find another bank that will cost you less and will do more for you and others.
not-rushin 