Bank of America $5 Debit Fee Protest Gains Steam

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- More than 120,000 angry customers across 50 states have signed on to an online petition campaign calling on Bank of America(BAC) to cancel its proposed a $5 monthly fee for debit-card purchases.

Molly Katchpole, a Bank of America customer, launched the campaign on change.org. A a recent college-graduate who works two part-time jobs in Washington D.C, Katchpole says the fee hits low-income customers like herself.

"When the recession first hit, we gave Bank of America billions of dollars in bailout money. Our reward is higher fees for the same services. At some point, we've got to say enough is enough," she said in her petition.

According to Change.org, the campaign is seeing an extraordinary response, attracting 40,000 customers a day.

Bank of America and other banks including JPMorgan Chase(JPM), Wells Fargo(WFC) and Citigroup(C) are looking to charge customers as a way to offset the loss to revenues from new regulations that cap the fees banks can charge merchants for debit-card purchases. But Bank of America's fee has drawn a lot more customer ire.

TheStreet is polling readers for their reaction to the fee. So far, an overwhelming majority of the nearly 7,000 readers have said they will move their account elsewhere because they are sick of being nickeled and dimed. Take the poll to register your vote.

-- Written by Shanthi Bharatwaj from New York.

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