As the accounts are getting revamped, bank of america customers may have to pay higher fees

Since the accounts are getting revamped, some of the Bank of America Customers may end up paying higher fees on their checking accounts and other banking services. If they wish to change their banking habits they could probably avoid some of the fees. Maintaining a higher balance and avoiding tellers for the daily transactions and other such adjustments could help in avoiding some of the fees.

Most of the major banks are planning to phase out the traditional checking accounts sometime during July and August. They plan to move around 530,000 customers from 3 states to a new set of accounts. This includes 170,000 from Massachusetts alone. All of the checking accounts customers nationwide would be moved into new offerings by the end of next year and this would include over two million in Massachusetts.

After being moved to the new accounts, customers would be required to maintain higher balances and many other conditions in order to get free checking. There may be customers who come under the no-fee accounts under the present system, but that will not be the case under the new one. For example, the highly popular MyAccess checking account requires customers to maintain an average balance of at least $1,500 or do the direct deposits each month, if they want to avoid the $8.95 monthly fee.

Now there is a new account which is called Enhanced checking. Here the customers are required to make deposits of $2,000 each month and maintain around $5,000 in different accounts, or use the credit card once a month in order to avoid the monthly fee of $15. Added to this, the bank also would be offering customers eBanking accounts where customers can avoid the $12 monthly fee by signing up for paperless statements. Customers can do all their transaction online or through ATMs.

Bank of America also states that there are different ways and means to avoid fees in these new accounts when compared to the old ones. However, it refused to disclose the number of checking customers who pay the monthly service fees and how these numbers would change once the new accounts replace the old ones.

As Bank of America increased its charges, there has been a switch to new accounts. The annual credit card fees are much higher now and even the penalties on overdrafts have become heftier at present. Financial institutions across the nation have hiked up the fees to offset other losses.