STOP WHINING ABOUT THE NEW DEBIT CARD FEE!

/ by Dominique Brown

Well, Bank of America thinks that you should just accept it and they are about to introduce a fee increase. Soon, Bank of America customers will have to pay an additional $5 a month in order to make purchases with their debit cards.

Debit cards have become more and more popular over the past decade, and millions of people use their debit card as their primary means of payment. Only a relative few rely on cash in this day and age. Many people have their paychecks deposited directly into their bank accounts.

While many of us use credit cards for large purchases or repeat purchases like gas or groceries, the ever present threat of going into debt combined with high interest rates has lead many people to rely on their debit cards. In fact, many people can hardly imagine using anything else since debit cards and banks accounts are tied so closely together.

In many situations, it is very smart to use your debit card for your purchases. Especially since, in the past, you have not had to worry about paying an extra fee for using your debit card. Most importantly, your debit card only accesses the funds that you have. This helps you stick to your budget, and it keeps you from spending beyond your means.

Many people, who have had problems with debt in the past, now use their debit card exclusively and do not have a credit card, except for emergencies.   This is only one example of a recent move by banks to create and increase their fees. This trend is likely the result of the Feds capping the fees that banks can collect from the use of debit cards. Every time you use your debit card at a store, the bank collects a fee from the store. The amount of money that they can make per transaction has been limited to twenty-four cents, which is about twenty cents lower than the previous average amount.