NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Get ready for a new wave of bank fees. Bank of America will begin charging a $5 monthly fee at the beginning of next year for customers who make debit card purchases.

Whether you use your card for one purchase a month or 20, you will pay $5 per month starting in 2012. It doesn't matter if you select "debit" or "credit" at the point of sale.

If you don't use your card at all, you won't be assessed a fee, and you can still use ATMs as much as you want without getting hit with the new charge. Plus, customers with certain premium accounts will be exempt from the charge.

Other banks have been flirting with the idea of introducing a fee for debit card usage, but Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) is one of the first major institutions to announce that it will make this a reality for active debit card customers.

The move coincides with the implementation of new rules limiting the revenue banks will be able to get from merchants. Beginning this weekend, a cap on the fees banks can charge retailers every time customers swipe their debit cards will take effect.

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While banks used to charge an average fee of 44 cents, now the maximum fee is only 21 cents. This is expected to cost the banking industry billions of dollars. The Federal Reserve introduced the cap this summer, despite protests from many financial institutions.

"The economics of offering a debit card have changed with recent regulations," said Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess, adding that customers will be notified of the change at least 30 days before it takes effect.

Last month, Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) said it will test a $3 monthly fee in Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington beginning Oct. 14 for customers who use their debit card for purchases.

At the end of last year, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) announced a similar test, in which it charged customers in northern Wisconsin a $3 fee for using their debit cards. A Chase spokesman said last month that the tests were still underway.

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But Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who introduced the swipe-fee cap in an amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, said the cap simply evens out the playing field for retailers because the fees Visa and MasterCard had set for banks "grossly exceed the cost of processing a debit card transaction by some 400%."

"After years of raking in excess profits off an unfair and anti-competitive interchange system, Bank of America is trying to find new ways to pad their profits by sticking it to its customers," Durbin said in a statement Thursday. "It's overt, unfair and I hope their customers have the final say."

Makes we long for the days when I made a trip to the bank once a week and took out the money I needed or wrote checks for the rest. With all the crazy crap going on with debit card pin number theft, I cringe whenever I use mine.

Greedy bastards.

I can't believe this ridiculous nonsense.

The whole point of using debit cards is that it's "easier" than carrying cash.

Now if that proviledge becomes a paid service, why bother?

I'll just carry cash, thank-you-very-much.

I've never used a debit card in my life...............and never will.

I belong to a credit union....I HOPE they don't start doing this shit.

Shorty said:

I belong to a credit union....I HOPE they don't start doing this shit.

Credit Unions rock.

Credit Union my self. No fees IF you use credit union ATMs, doesn't matter which one. I'm hoping too they don't switch up like the banks are, but seeing how things are with more and more companies charging for services that use to be free, I wouldn't doubt it.

What is wrong with using cash? I don't get it.

Graycap23 said:

What is wrong with using cash? I don't get it.

it's inconvenient and dangerous.

SCNDLS said:

Graycap23 said:

What is wrong with using cash? I don't get it.

it's inconvenient and dangerous.

Really? I've used cash all of my adult life and I've never seen it that way at all.

morningsong said:

Credit Union my self. No fees IF you use credit union ATMs, doesn't matter which one. I'm hoping too they don't switch up like the banks are, but seeing how things are with more and more companies charging for services that use to be free, I wouldn't doubt it.

I have a credit union acct I don't even use because they don't have any branches near me. Whereas, Chase is right next door. But I'mastart transferring funds to the CU if they pull this bullshit.

SCNDLS said:

morningsong said:

Credit Union my self. No fees IF you use credit union ATMs, doesn't matter which one. I'm hoping too they don't switch up like the banks are, but seeing how things are with more and more companies charging for services that use to be free, I wouldn't doubt it.

I have a credit union acct I don't even use because they don't have any branches near me. Whereas, Chase is right next door. But I'mastart transferring funds to the CU if they pull this bullshit.

yeah my branch is not that close to me but ..I use my debit card like cash so it's not a big deal.

Graycap23 said:

SCNDLS said:

it's inconvenient and dangerous.

Really? I've used cash all of my adult life and I've never seen it that way at all.

I don't want to go to the bank and make a withdrawal everytime I need to buy or pay for something. And travelling with large sums of cash is dangerous. Plus I can track my spending with a card easily. But if it works for you.

Graycap23 said:

What is wrong with using cash? I don't get it.

my check gets directly deposted, and my nearest branch is 40 minutes from me.

AND...I tend to spend cash when I have it on me...

Shorty said:

SCNDLS said:

I have a credit union acct I don't even use because they don't have any branches near me. Whereas, Chase is right next door. But I'mastart transferring funds to the CU if they pull this bullshit.

yeah my branch is not that close to me but ..I use my debit card like cash so it's not a big deal.

I gotta deposit checks from clients regularly and my closest CU branch is about 20 miles away.

SCNDLS said:

Graycap23 said:

Really? I've used cash all of my adult life and I've never seen it that way at all.

I don't want to go to the bank and make a withdrawal everytime I need to buy or pay for something. And travelling with large sums of cash is dangerous. Plus I can track my spending with a card easily. But if it works for you.

The idea of someone tracking every single thing I do with my loots is disturbing 2 me.

Shorty said:

SCNDLS said:

I have a credit union acct I don't even use because they don't have any branches near me. Whereas, Chase is right next door. But I'mastart transferring funds to the CU if they pull this bullshit.

yeah my branch is not that close to me but ..I use my debit card like cash so it's not a big deal.

I don't have any CUs near where I live either, but they're are at least 3 different institutions near my job, 2 of which I already had accounts with when I started working here, I can use all 3s ATMs with no fees from the machine or my accounts. Odd though that one of the CUs I have accts with is closing branches left and right, down to 3 branches in the County, and the other seems to be booming, opening even more locations continuously. But there is a fee every time I use debit elsewhere so maybe it's the same difference in the end afterall.

Graycap23 said:

SCNDLS said:

I don't want to go to the bank and make a withdrawal everytime I need to buy or pay for something. And travelling with large sums of cash is dangerous. Plus I can track my spending with a card easily. But if it works for you.

The idea of someone tracking every single thing I do with my loots is disturbing 2 me.

Oh, I forgot

So now your $30 worth of gas will cost $35! Bitches! Eh....all the banks will follow suit....just wait and see.

HotGritz said:

So now your $30 worth of gas will cost $35! Bitches! Eh....all the banks will follow suit....just wait and see.

Nah...I think it's $5 a month, not per use.

BUT rest assured, as soon as people get over their anger and this becomes the norm...it'll go from $5/month to $5/week to $5/per transaction.

PurpleJedi said:

HotGritz said:

So now your $30 worth of gas will cost $35! Bitches! Eh....all the banks will follow suit....just wait and see.

Nah...I think it's $5 a month, not per use.

BUT rest assured, as soon as people get over their anger and this becomes the norm...it'll go from $5/month to $5/week to $5/per transaction.

YEP!

PurpleJedi said:

HotGritz said:

So now your $30 worth of gas will cost $35! Bitches! Eh....all the banks will follow suit....just wait and see.

Nah...I think it's $5 a month, not per use.

BUT rest assured, as soon as people get over their anger and this becomes the norm...it'll go from $5/month to $5/week to $5/per transaction.

You already know. Fuckas!

SCNDLS said:

PurpleJedi said:

Nah...I think it's $5 a month, not per use.

BUT rest assured, as soon as people get over their anger and this becomes the norm...it'll go from $5/month to $5/week to $5/per transaction.

You already know. Fuckas!

Main reason i don't fuck wit em or Wachovia/Wells Fargo.

Credit Unions rock!

Just balance it out with a savings account.

They give returns of something like .00000000001% nowadays

nevermind.

[Edited 9/30/11 14:57pm]

^ there use to be no fee when you opted for credit, unlike debit, just sign and show your ID and keep it movin'.

someone gotta pay for those ghatdamn commericals ..i'm suprised capital one isn't the first 2 do it

Glad I'm not with BofA anymore. Now with this I'm dreading my bank will follow suit...

That's fucked up.

Guess I'll close my Chase account and go back to strickly CASH!!

Fuck a debit card.