Banks have stopped charging debit card fees to their customers, which is something that customers have worked long and hard for. However, after all the petitions and fights to end the debit card fees, these customers are less than satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately, the fees are probably not going to end anytime soon and customers are just as irate as ever.

While many customers are intend on openly protesting, others have decided that they are going to protest in a more subtle way. They are just moving their money out of their bank accounts and putting it in credit unions.

This movement is something they have been considering for some time now. In a recent BBC article, Lorin Oberweger mentioned how she had been planning on moving her money out of her bank account for the past three years. Like many other customers, she wanted to put her money somewhere where big corporations had less influence. Credit unions provided that safeguard for her, in addition to offering lower rates.

According to a founder of a firm that specializes in delivering financial solutions to consumers, approximately a third of all people think about changing their banks. Historically, only about a tenth of customers ever take the leap to do so. That trend has changed in recent years. Over the past few years, twice as many people have left their banks due to raising fees or declining standards of service.

The Alite group conducted a survey of customers from the United Kingdom, the United States and France. They wanted to see what customers thought about their banks. This survey revealed that customers’ trust in banks dropped to the lowest level ever in 2009. Clearly, they have become even more frustrated in more recent years.

Plenty of things have taken place over the past few years that have caused the feelings of resentment that customers are experiencing. The banks may be coming to realize that customers are willing to limit their power. Bank of America tried to implement a new policy on charging customers a monthly fee to use their debit cards. The bank revoked the fee just over a month later.

However, customers have not limited the banks’ power to the point where they are going to be able to make a serious difference any time soon. According to Tim Pannel of Financial Marketing Solutions, it would take more than 40,000 customers joining the Bank Transfer Day group on Facebook before the banks got the message loud and clear. The banks are going to keep implementing these charges until customers decide to take a more definitive stand on the issue.

Over the past month, bank customers have done everything they can to vent their frustrations against the big banks. They have been extremely upset over the debit card fees charged by Bank of America and a number of other services. At first, they felt their protests were heard loud and clear by the banks. However, their enthusiasm has since dwindled.

Consumers aren’t the only ones to start venting their frustrations over the banking fees. A number of small businesses are also starting to feel the pain as well.

According to a post in This is Money, many petrol retailers are being pushed to the limits of their ability to meet their obligations. Businesses that sell petrol have already been struggling to deal with the existing competition. Many private retailers are unable to compete and only a little over 5,000 continue to operate in the UK. This marks a 75% decrease in the number of petrol retailers over the past 20 years.

As the banks shy away from issuing bank fees to their end customers due to reforms and customer protests, they are going to continue to raise the rates for retailers. Banks have been trying to regain the interest of their customers by issuing premium cards and cash back programs on fuel purchases. Inevitably, these fees need to be imposed on someone and retailers have been taking the brunt of them in more recent months.

One of the most hardest programs for petrol retailers to deal with is the Santander 123 program. Although customers are happy that they can receive up to 3% cashback on all their purchases, retailers know that many of those fees have to come back to them.

The fees generally sneak their way into the retailers bill through the interchange fees. Many people have speculated that the interchange fees are much higher for rewards cards than most other credit cards. One petrol retailer told reporters that his fees increased more than 50% as customers have started using more rewards cards.

The banks are going to keep looking for ways to get their money out of their customers. Inevitably, someone seems to always have to pay the price and small businesses need to take some of the brunt as well.

Many Bank of America customers were outraged when the bank decided to implement a $5 usage fee on debit cards. Although many people decided to vent about it, the bank was rigid on its terms for a while. After a brutal uprising from its customers, Bank of America has decided to change its mind. This decision comes shortly after regulators have started calling for banking reform policies.

Outrage Over Bank of America’s Planned Fee

Bank of America proposed a plan to create a debit card fee that would be implemented in 2012. This fee would be implemented each month. Almost immediately, customers started protesting the idea. They said that they should not have to pay for the right to use their own money.

Almost immediately, customers started rebelling against Bank of America’s plans.

In an article she posted on the Guardian, Molly Katchpole also decided to take a stand. Katchpole created a petition and started promoting it through social media networks. Katchpole claims her petition was an important part in the movement to repeal the debit card fee. Although it is difficult to establish the role she played, many people admire her for taking the initiative to make a difference.

Katchpole is an activist with Change.org. The petition her group launched ended up receiving over 300,000 signatures. These petitioners came from all over the country.

More likely, the real message came from the many customers started leaving their bank to go to credit unions. According to a Reuters post, over 600,000 consumers have joined credit unions since the end of September. These credit unions are now thriving, even after Bank of America and its competitors have agreed to drop the debit card fee.

In his post in the Washington Post, Alexander Petri says the petition probably had almost no influence on Bank of America’s decision to overturn the fee probably. Petri points out that more than 20,000 customers were willing to close their accounts over this fee.

For what it is worth, Bank of America has officially declared they have ended their $5 debit card fee on Tuesday November 1. The bank decided to give up their fee after customers reported how furious they were. Many other banks were also considering offering a debit card fee, but Bank of America was the last one to give up on the idea.

Bank of America is unable to confirm whether or not it permanently lost any business to the credit unions. Its deposit data will not be available until after the New Year.

Many customers are very pleased over the fact Bank of America has repealed the debit card fee. The question many people are asking now is what damage this has done to Bank of America and the others that tried to charge the fees in the first place. There’s still the possibility that many of them are not going to go back to those accounts, which may cause long-term damage to the banks. Of course, that may be what the banks need to remember not to try using those kinds of fees again.