As we look at debit card fees, it seems that big banks like Bank of America and Citibank are scrambling for methods to drive profits. Having already laid off workers, yet paying massive salaries and benefits to board members, even after bailouts, it seems that few will feel sorry for their plight.
What is so interesting is in this case there are so many better options. If you visit a site like Deposit Accounts, they give you a great listing of some of the options available to you for both checking and savings accounts. One of my personal favorites that has held strong for many years is Alliant Credit Union.
One of the big changes that is great for consumers is there is rarely a need to actually visit a branch anymore. You can easily deposit checks and get help without appearing in person. For me, it was a little scary not being able to visit a branch, but now some of the internet banking sites are truly awesome and easy to use. For added security, sometimes it is better to have a 2-3 different banks, and what is nice is it is easy to tranfer money from one bank to another free (but check their terms). Ally bank has been known to be great with speedy and free transfers.
What I fear is coming soon is more layoffs to branch employees as consumers transition away from visting branches and do all their banking online. A behemoth like Bank of America or Chase may soon find their problems are magnified as people move away from branches for which BOA and Chase have massive investment.