Bloomberg reports that Bank of America abandoned its plans to charge $5 per month for debit cards, which was meant to begin in January. The spokesperson spin was that the bank "listened to its customers" and decided to drop the planned fee, but I find it more likely that blowback in the form of threatened account closures and withdrawal of funds (such as recently occurred with Citibank customers) is a better characterization, meaning that the bank tried it but ultimately realized depositors couldn't be gouged even more than usual.


