Bank of America Scraps Plans for New Debit Card Fee

The people have spoken. announced today that it has abandoned plans to charge its customers for using their debit cards.

The bank released the following statement:

In response to customer feedback and the changing competitive marketplace, Bank of America no longer intends to implement a debit usage fee.

"We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee," said David Darnell, co-chief operating officer. "Our customers' voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so."

In September, Bank of America said it will start charging $5 a month for debit card usage early 2012.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that about one-third of customers would switch banks if they had to pay a monthly fee, based on a survey by the Research Intelligence Group.

According to the poll on Renton Patch, 41 percent of readers said they would also move to another bank and 34 percent said they'd stop using their debit card.

Other major banks, including Citigroup and , have also dropped their plans to implement a monthly usage fee, according to Huffington Post.