Wells Fargo, the other giant coast-to-coast bank, had already revealed its plans to test a $3 fee in the wake of new federal rules that made the cards less profitable for many banks.

Bank of America probably has bigger problems than any of its competitors. So it stands to reason that it would make a bolder move. After all, it is dealing with a pile of troubled mortgages, legal fallout from the sales of bonds made from those loans and questions about how it serviced its home mortgages.

Still, the scale of its changes mean that most debit card shoppers who do not have Bank of America mortgages or more than $20,000 in account balances will need to pay that $5 monthly fee. It is a tax on pretty much every customer without a healthy salary or investment income, plus those who want to keep their savings elsewhere for whatever reason.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo are hardly alone here, since other big banks have toughened the rules for people who want to keep free checking, or have killed off rewards programs to save money. And we probably haven’t heard the last of the new rules either. All of these moves together, however, raise a simple and rather obvious question:

Why is anyone still doing business with banks like these?

Just after noon on Friday, Elvita Dominique, who lives in Harlem, was trying to answer that question for herself. She had just left a Bank of America branch on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan having made an appointment with a bank employee who could help her review her options. “I want to know if they are going to make exceptions,” she said. (Later in the day, the branch employee said no.)

She had already heard that Citibank did not plan to add monthly debit card fees, so she will investigate that possibility. She is also considering joining a credit union.

Bank of America’s move is part of a broader effort to overhaul its checking account lineup. As of sometime early next year, it will have four basic accounts, only one of which will waive the $5 monthly fee for debit card users who want to use the card for purchases. A.T.M. use will not incur the monthly fee, but charging recurring bills like gym memberships or mobile phone plans to your debit card will.

Only Bank of America customers with more than $20,000 in combined checking, savings and certificate of deposit accounts or a bank mortgage (of any size) will be able to avoid both the debit card fee and any other monthly fee for falling below a required minimum balance level.

Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust customers will also get a waiver, as will unemployed people who use certain government-issued Bank of America cards that have benefit money loaded onto them.

While the bank will not say what percentage of its checking account customers it expects (or hopes) will be paying new fees, $20,000 is a much higher bar to clear than the direct deposit requirement or the $1,500 to $10,000 minimum balances that the bank currently places on many checking account customers who wish to avoid fees.

As a result, plenty of customers will be looking at their options. What would cause people who count on debit cards to help them live within their means to stick around despite the $5 a month fee?

The first factor is the perceived pain involved with switching. And it is a pain, though not as much as you may think. It shouldn’t take much more than 90 minutes to reboot direct deposit of your paycheck and move all the automated payments from one account to another.

There may be a few hiccups over the next couple of months, but they shouldn’t take more than a few minutes each to fix. Try to leave some money behind in the old account for a few months just in case it takes billers a few cycles to make the switch.

Much depends, then, on how much you value that 90 minutes, versus the $60 in savings you might achieve in Year 1 with your new financial institution. Then you need to weigh the value of your time against the good feeling that would come from rewarding a checking account provider that wasn’t so fee-happy.

A.T.M. convenience is another factor that limits switching. Consumers who haven’t looked at an online-only institution in awhile will be pleasantly surprised by the developments here. Some of them have tapped into nationwide networks of fee-free machines that are bigger than any one bank’s collection of locations. Others let you use any A.T.M. you want and reimburse you for most or all of the fees you pay to withdraw money. Banks like ING Direct, Ally, Charles Schwab and USAA are all worth a look here. They may well pay better interest too, though it won’t amount to very much these days.

There could be plenty of people who have no problem with an extra $5 a month. Claudia Smith, who lives in Fayetteville, Ark., said she wasn’t worried about the new fee, even though she used her debit card extensively. “It’s well worth $5 a month to not have to carry a checkbook,” she said.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=3f4b3366d806f22618941a5fc4366ff8