"You've Caught the NET!"

Add this to the growing list of prices going up in Chicago - fees for using a Bank of America ATM, if you don't happen to have a linked checking or savings account in the B of A!

What?  You're not shocked?  Perhaps you're just NUMB!

Effective Monday, June 23rd, the fee charged by banking kingpin Bank of America, for non-customers usting their ATM machines, will increase a hefty 50% - from the current $2/transaction, to $3!  Bank of America has over 18,000 ATM machines across the country.  They are now the second-largest bank network in the Chicago area, since they re-branded hundreds of area LaSalle Bank branches and ATM machines on May 5th.

Chicago's largest banking network - Chase - had the highest ATM fees for non-customers in the area when it raised its fee to $3 earlier this year.  Now, B of A has joined the party! (Bank of America delayed their ATM fee increase here, although it was instituted in every other B of A market nationally, until the re-branding of the old LaSalle branches last month.)

Although Bank of America spokesman Robert Darmanin stated that non-customer transactions at the typical ATM account for only 10% of the total, there are times when using a "foreign ATM" is unavoidable.  The other day, while at a Chicago Cubs game, I used a B of A machine for some quick cash; B of A ATM machines are the only ones installed at Wrigley Field!

Want another kick in the shin?

The local ATM fees are IN ADDITION TO the fees YOUR OWN BANK may charge for you using someone else's ATM. 

If you happen to be a Citibank customer, for example, and you take $50 from a Bank of America ATM, you might be charged $3 by Bank of America, PLUS an additional $2 by Citibank for not using one of their own ATM machines.  That amounts to a hefty 10% premium, for a modest withdrawl!

Speak up and complain, folks - but you might lose your voice trying!

See our post today at BlogChicagoHomes.com for more information, and a link to Becky Yerak's story in today's Chicago Tribune.

DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO