bank of america

Consumers, your voices were heard! Bank of America announced today that it is dropping its plan to charge debit users $5 a month for usage. This comes after a surge of public disapproval about the fees. Thousands of customers flocked online to sign petitions — one by change.org received over 300,000 signatures. Politicians like President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have also spoken against the fees.

David Darnell, the bank's co-chief operating officer, says, "We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee . . . Our customers' voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so."

Two other banks, Chase and Wells Fargo, also announced last week that they decided not to charge customers debit usage fees after testing the $3-a-month fee with pilot programs in several markets.

Bank of America customers will now have to pay an additional $5 a month just for using their debit card, reports Bloomberg. This amounts up to an extra $60 a year in debit card usage fees.

Apparently, the banking giant needs to cut its debit card losses from the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial act. The amendment basically ruled that debit interchange fees be reduced, and BofA plans on making up for its losses by tacking on an extra fee for debit card holders. This new fee will be rolled out early next year.

Those who don't use their debit cards or who only use their card for ATM withdrawals will be exempt from this fee. This is just a sign of the times, and consumers should start expecting more fees from their banks. However, take note that Citigroup has said that it won't be charging debit card usage fees when restructuring its accounts to make up for the loss of profits.

Bankrate has some great advice on what to do if your bank starts charging a debit card fee: "If your bank begins charging a debit card fee and you don't want to move your checking account, you can always go back to carrying a credit card. As long as you pay off your balance every month, credit cards can have advantages over debit cards such as rewards programs and better protection from fraud liability."

If you're wondering why you can't access your Bank of America account online, don't worry you're not alone. The bank's website has been down or slow since yesterday. A spokesperson representing the firm said that the system had slowed due to some routine upgrades that were done over the weekend.

I can't even access my account as the site says banking is down for California residents. However, when I dug around on Twitter, I saw mentions of BoA online banking being down for Florida, Virginia, and New York, so it looks like a lot of other states are facing this problem.

If you're one of the unhappy campers who can't access your website, pay your bills with checks or call the company and try to pay it via credit card over the phone. If you want to check how much you have in your account, you can always take a look at your Mint account (if you have one). The Bank of America site has been down before; the most recent outage was in Jan. 2010. To make sure that you're covered when this happens again, try to automate your payments so you don't have to worry about paying off your bills at the beginning of every month.

Here are some tweets by upset customers:

ThePalestGirl are you kidding me @BofA_help?! fix your damn web site! 2 days in a row! you have how many billions of dollars? #bankofamerica #BoA

shreddel BOA get your act together. Need me to find you a tech guy? #BOA

markep Bank of America is down and it's the first of the Month. Going to have to write checks by hand. Arrrrrgh.

deceptacle Hey norCal people- what's a really good local bank/credit union to join? I'm closing my #BoA account, finally

We've been wondering which bank the infamous WikiLeaks is targeting, and CNBC has just confirmed that it's going to be Bank of America, a SavvySugar favorite. We still don't have a clear idea of what will be released, and the date the information is going to be disseminated on, but I guess that's in line with the WikiLeaks culture of secrecy. It's interesting to see what readers thought of the controversial nonprofit, with 44 percent saying they would never give money to WikiLeaks, 25 percent stating they support the organization's cause, and the rest saying they don't have a strong opinion.

Founder Julian Assange, has made a lot of enemies, and many of them are calling to extradite him to Sweden, which his lawyers are fighting because they say it may lead to a Guantanamo Bay imprisonment or even the death penalty. Looks like he's about to add more enemies to his long list: BofA CEO Brian Moynihan and other executives from the bank.

Last year it was Wells Fargo, and this time, Bank of America wins your favor as the best commercial bank of the year. It's clearly a cut above the rest with 38 percent of SavvySugar readers nominating it, while the next two favorites, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan, each received 19 percent of your votes.

Your favorite pick has been quite a hot topic as of late, because it's rumored to be the target of the next WikiLeaks attack. In efforts to protect itself, the firm has been registering anti-BofA domain names like BrianMoynihanSucks.com, which refers to the bank's CEO. I'm not sure how 2011 is going to pan out this year for the bank, but I guess we'll get to watch the drama unfold next year!

Couples who have stayed married for decades seem like they got it figured out. Together for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, they've likely supported each other while raising kids, pursuing careers, and taking on life's numerous challenges. It's hard for us to picture these longtime spouses not together. But apparently this perception of stability is all in our minds — statistics show that once a couple gets through the first 10 years of marriage, the likelihood that they will divorce decreases, but it remains relatively the same throughout the rest of the marriage.

In other words, couples like Al and Tipper Gore, who have separated after 40 years of marriage, don't have a better chance of sticking it out than a couple who's been married only one decade. The Gores' reason, which has yet to be credibly questioned, is that they simply grew apart. And that's not such an unbelievable reason. Al and Tipper inevitably have changed since they got married at 22 and 21, and maybe now separation makes sense.

Do you know anyone who divorced after decades of marriage?

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