About 610,000 U.S. bank customers moved their accounts to a smaller institution in the last three months of 2011 to protest plans by major banks to impose monthly charges for using debit cards, according to a financial services market-research firm. The Los Angeles Times reports that represented 11% of the 5.6 million U.S. people who switched banks during that period—a relatively modest number, Javelin Strategy & Research says in its report released Monday. Javelin says it analyzed the online responses of 5,878 people to gauge the effect of the backlash triggered by Bank of America Corp.’s plan to charge $5 a month to customers who used their debit cards for purchases. Several other banks already had either imposed debit card fees or were testing them, and analysts had predicted the trend would spread to the entire industry. However, outspoken public opposition to the fees caused Bank of America and other major banks to pull back on their plans. In addition to the 11% who joined the Bank Transfer Day movement in October, November and December, an additional 26% told Javelin that they switched not as part of the protest movement per se but because the banks charged too many fees in general.
Today’s poll question: Did you change banks to protest proposed fee hikes last fall?
