There was welcome news for some Bank of America and Wells Fargo customers this week. BofA announced it’s reducing the fee for overdrawn accounts from $35 to $10 and also said it will no longer charge a fee for bounced checks. Wells Fargo also announced it’s doing away with bounced check fees and will grant a 24-hour grace period when accounts are overdrawn.
The moves are part of broader changes sweeping the banking industry. Both banks have major presences in Charlotte, including BofA’s headquarters.
“This is part of an industry-wide move away from some of these fees,” The Charlotte Ledger’s Tony Mecia told WFAE’s Marshall Terry in this week’s BizWorthy. “Consumers don’t really like them. They’re seen as excessive — far in excess of what it actually costs the bank to process these kinds of transactions. ”
Mecia says there’s been talk of regulations on such fees, so this might be a case of banking giants trying to stay a step ahead. But it’ll cost them.
“Oh, they definitely make money on these fees,” Mecia said. “J.P. Morgan reportedly made more than $1 billion a year off of these years, so it’s millions or billions of dollars, potentially. You could say, ‘Well, maybe they get some goodwill out of this; maybe that’s worth something.’ But they’re trying to head it off, I think, a little bit, and stay ahead of these regulators.”
You can listen to the full BizWorthy conversation above. Here’s a quick look at a few other things Mecia and Terry covered this week.
- The Ledger took a look at the story behind Starmed, which has become a leader in COVID-19 testing in Charlotte.
- The Charlotte Area Chamber of Commerce is up and running — and it’s different than the city’s existing chamber.
- There’s an update on Tim Newman, the former Charlotte tourism official accused of threatening to blow up a dam near Charleston, South Carolina.
