No doubt you’ve heard something of the monthly fee Bank of America was planning to charge their checking customers for the use of their debit cards. They were going to charge a $5 a month fee if you didn’t meet certain criteria (a huge percentage of their checking account holders would have likely been subject to this fee). Bank of America has now pulled a Netflix and reneged on their plan to charge this fee.

Everything’s good then right? No need to change banks if you use Bank of America (or Chase, or Wells Fargo or any other large bank) right?

Wrong.

Now is the perfect time to change, and the good news is you’ve got plenty of options! Many of you know that I have been reading Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich for years now and for as long as I can remember he’s always talked some serious trash about big banks.

When I saw Ramit at the financial blogger conference this year he, MD and myself had a discussion about the debit card usage fee that Bank of America had just announced and Ramit said something very similar to this:

I’ve been telling my readers for years to stop doing business with the big banks because they’re going to eventually get screwed over.

Spot on Ramit.

I’ve been saying no to bank fees for years. I haven’t banked with one of the ‘big banks’ for probably close to a decade now and I’ve never once missed doing business with them.

Like I mentioned earlier you’ve got so many options now that there are very few good excuses left on why you should bank with one of the big banks. Seriously. Three categories and likely 30+ options within said categories:

• Credit unions
• Community Banks
• Online Banks

For those of you who still bank with the Bank of Americas or the Chase banks, try this test for me. Ask a friend or a family member if they use a credit union, community bank or an online bank and if they do ask them what they like about their bank. Ok, now whatever their answer was… can you honestly say that about your big bank? I doubt if you can, honestly. Ask four more people after you get your first answer. How does your bank match up now?

I’d be willing to bet it doesn’t.

Do yourself a favor and quit your bank. Switch to a credit union, a local (community) bank or an online bank. Once you switch you won’t regret it. It’s time to vote with our wallets and just say no to outrageous bank fees.