Listening to the Customer???

Bank of America is no longer going to be continuing overdraft charges. Instead, they will simply be declining debit card purchases. Overdraft charges, a major revenue for most banks, are something that customers (myself included) complain about all the time. "I just purchased the most expensive pack of gum!" Some people state that they would rather not pay the charge and not be allowed to spend the money they don't have (...credit cards?).

Now this puts a lot of pressure on other banks to do the same. Overdraft charges bring in about twenty billion last year alone. If it brings in this much money, why put a stop to it? Read this from the New York Times:

“What our customers kept telling me is ‘just don’t let me spend money that I don’t have,’ ” said Susan Faulkner, the bank’s deposit and card product executive, who said the overdraft changes were part of a broader push to build trust among its customers. “We wanted to help them avoid those unexpected overdraft fees.”

Sounds to me like the bank is finally taking an interest in what the customer wants. But by doing this, they are also doing some damage control. In financial hardships, such as this, a consumer wants to know that they're not being jerked around, manipulated into a different bank. Bank of America is leading the way.

Enabling Bank of America, the Federal Reserve will need to have each bank customer agree to overdraft charges. No overdraft charges cannot be taken without obtaining consent as of July 1, where banks currently just automatically enroll their customers.

So what to think about this? Some initiative in terms of the financial crisis, but not completely averted. It's going to take more than just waiving the overdraft fees to keep a house from foreclosure.