
Bank of America website disrupted for 4th day in a row - chailatte
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/03/bank_of_america_website_outage/
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saucetenuto
> Friday's disruption came the same day that BofA said it would begin charging
> customers $5 per month for purchases billed to their debit card.

Does anyone have more details on this? The units don't seem to match in "per
month for purchases" - like, $5 per purchase? $5 a month? $5 a month, but only
on months in which you make at least one purchase?

And for heaven's sake, why?

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hugh3
Five dollars a month, for any month in which you use your debit card for
purchases.

As for the "why", the immediate reason is because there have been some legal
changes vis a vis how much they can charge to the merchant for the benefit of
running this transaction.

More generally, because they want to incentivize people to use their credit
cards instead of debit cards. And for those who can't or don't want to get
credit cards -- to incentivize them to take their business elsewhere, because
the bank really doesn't make any money off people who just have checking
accounts. Checking accounts are merely a gateway drug to more expensive
banking products.

Doesn't bother me, I get 1% cash back on my credit card and am not dumb enough
to spend more than I earn on it, so I already have no incentive to use my
debit card for purchases.

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pavel_lishin
I'm annoyed at this, but I probably won't switch. I rarely use my debit card
to make purchases, since I have a BoA credit card with reward points - and
I've heard that debit card fraud is more difficult to combat.

Do most people shop with their debit card?

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click170
In Canada we do.

I think the reliance on credit cards is largely an American phenomenon.

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mahyarm
In Canada, people don't use Visa or Mastercard Debit cards. They use Interac,
a Canadian financial network that only charges a flat fee of ~0.25 per debit
card transaction. You can't use them for online purchasing although. Most
Canadian's are surprised when you can use a debit card like a credit card for
online purchases.

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msbarnett
The phrasing of your last two sentences is unclear, but to clarify for those
reading, you can indeed use Interac debit cards for online payments.

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feydr
FYI: I don't know where their mobile app is pointing too but it works
perfectly fine

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pavel_lishin
For me, it's always been incredibly slow, and stateless - e.g., if I use it to
find a nearby ATM, and switch over to the Google Maps app, and go back to the
BoA app - it forces me to start all over - it takes about 3 minutes for it to
finally find an ATM near me.

I've given up and just started searching for 'bank of america' in the Maps
app.

(iPhone app, 3gs.)

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onedognight
> if I use it to find a nearby ATM, and switch over to the Google Maps app,
> and go back to the BoA app - it forces me to start all over

They fixed this is the latest release. It now will keep you logged in as long
as the app hasn't been kicked out of memory (which is not up to them). On a
3GS that might be sooner than you'd like, but has been working for me on my 4.

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lsc
oh man. so they use he.net, too?

(I kid, but it's been a pretty horrible week for DoS attacks there, too.)

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myth_drannon
First bank e-run ?

