Filed under: Journalism
I read an old, but relevant article about how starting in 2012 the Bank of America charging $5 a month to use a debit card. The charge will only be applied if the card is used to make a purchase and one can still use an ATM without being charged. Premium account holders won’t be affected by this charge. Banks have been “flirting” with the idea of adding a charge to using debit cards, but the Bank of America is the first major institution to announce the change. The change comes because there is a cap being placed on fees a bank can charge retailers when people use their cards at their stores.
I chose this article because it affects a large amount of peoples lives. I also chose the article because it interested me that a bank would start charging to use your own money to pay for something. I could see this with a credit card where you have to pay that money back anyway, but it seems harsh to make someone pay for debit card use. The article also has a nice structure to it and flows well with good transitions between paragraphs. There were also quotes and statistics in the article to make it more objective.
Link to article: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/29/pf/bank_of_america_debit_fee/
One thing you could do to fill this out, Derrick, is link to stories about the angry reaction to this news. BoA was bailed out by the US/taxpayers, and this is the thanks we get?
You might notice the story uses direct address (you), to make it more immediate.
fuglsang 10.16.11 @ 7:04 pm