While Bank of America started charging customers $5 a month for debit card usage, Chase Bank has chosen not to implement debit card fees. Chase had been charging its customers $3 month in Georgia, but has decided to remove said fees and to not implement them anywhere else.
When free markets actually work - which is to say no one is given preferential treatment by the government that allows them to engage in unfair practices (wink wink, CRTC, cough cough, Bell) against consumers or which assist them in monopolizing a market - then the balance of consumer demand and production/service costs dictate prices.
Anyway, kudos to Chase on the PR front for recognizing that while milking customers $3 a day may enhance the bottom line a little bit, it doesn't offset the brand damage they suffer over the long run. And kudos to the American people who apparently have been closing accounts with major banks and moving their money to credit unions in protest.
I'm not saying Chase is any different than any other bank, after all, they DID try to get away with this. I am however saying that the PR folks over at Chase are clearly smarter than the ones over at Bank of America. They recognize that at a certain point, public sentiment begins to affect public behaviour, and $3 a month is not worth having a brand crisis on your hands.
So Darth Vader, lay off Chase Bank, go rob a Bank of America instead.
On a funny note, one customer who had enough with BoA created a new logo for the company (in my next post I'm going to talk about why something like this is highly relevant in the world of PR).
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