Bank of America Scraps Unpopular Debit Card Fees … Freedom of Speech is a Powerful Device

Make no mistake about it, when used properly and in an orderly, concise and determined manner … free speech is a powerful tool that enables David to be Goliath all of the time.  Bank of America has blinked on their debit card fee charges to their customers. After all of the phone calls, emails, tweets and petitions, the Bank of America has decided to cancel their $5 a month debit card fees on their customers in fear of an even greater backlash than they have already relieved.

For the past month, consumers have been railing against a new Bank of America charge requiring customers to pay $5 a month to use their debit cards for purchases. More than 300,000 people signed an online petition to stop the planned fee. More than 21,000 people pledged to close their Bank of America checking accounts. One cable news anchor cut up her card on the air.

It was a classic David-and-Goliath fight, fueled by the growing populist outrage against the nation’s financial system. On Tuesday, the little guy won: Bank of America announced that it was abandoning the fee.

“This is one to go down in the history books, I think,” said Norma Garcia, manager of financial services at Consumers Union, an advocacy group. “It’s just a $5 fee, but it really is symbolic of so much more.”

Maybe the clueless Occupy protesters can learn something from those who actually want to affect change in a positive way, not just protest for the sake of doing so and cause trouble along the way.