Image Credit- B Rosen License- CC BY-ND 2.0
Right now, you’re either really glad that you aren’t a patron of the Bank of America, really wishing you weren’t, or you have enough money to afford to not give a damn either way. But regardless of where you stand on the Bank Of America platform, they’re on the fast track to serving up America’s less fortunate a big, fat plate of financial fucking. In case you’ve been living under a rock or in Nova Scotia lately, the Bank Of America has recently, and so eloquently, started charging their customers a 12 dollar monthly maintenance fee.
Now at first, that doesn’t sound so bad, right? Lots of banks have monthly fees in conjunction with lots of other fun, colorful tricks and schemes to screw you out of your own money. What’s the big deal with Bank Of America doing it, you ask? Well, this special, all-inclusive fucking is for the poor folks only!
You didn’t read that wrong. They’re charging the people that DON’T have any money. There are only three ways to avoid this $12 “maintenance” fee. You must have a direct deposit of at least $250 every month, maintain a minimum DAILY balance of $1,500, or be able to prove that you’re an active student under the age of 24. If you don’t have at least one of those things, you get charged an extra 12 bucks every month, for nothing.
Now most of you folks are gonna come at me with, “It’s only twelve damn dollars! If you can’t afford 12 dollars a month, then you don’t need a checking account! Blah blah blah…..” And then at this point you’re going to start sounding like that teacher in Charlie Brown and I’m no longer going to even remotely absorb the shitstorm that is coming from your mouth, because you’re the same person that bitches about 12 dollars of your tax money a year going to build a school or make sure a toddler’s parents can afford their child’s heart surgery.
“God forbid you take that 12 bucks from someone that actually HAS it, right? Instead, we’ll attack the underdogs the we know can’t possibly meet all of our requirements.”
But the short of the story is – brace yourself for it – poor people need a checking account too! Because (GASP) poor people work, too! They work at normal jobs, and they get normal paychecks like everyone else. That paycheck also has to go into a bank account, the same way everyone else’s does. Contrary to the ignorant popular belief, poor people have to do normal human things just like other normal human people, including having a bank account.
To a lot of people, 12 bucks a month really doesn’t seem like much, because to them, it’s not much. But tell that to a single mother of three. Or a father of six who’s been laid off, or a disabled veteran. Bet money that, to them, that 12 dollars is a big deal. I’ve been in a place where that twelve dollars would’ve been a huge deal. It would have been a box of diapers for my daughter. It would have been a spot of groceries to get us through the end of the month, without flat out starving. It would’ve been just enough gas in my car to (hopefully) get me back and forth to work until my next paycheck. And at the end of the year, it would’ve been 144 dollars that I lost out on, that I could’ve used. That I needed. One hundred forty-four dollars that was stolen from me by a greedy bunch of corporate fucks that DAMN sure didn’t need my 12 bucks every month.
It’s a simple equation of the rich robbing the poor to make the rich, richer. It’s happening everywhere. The Bank Of America certainly ain’t the first to pull this kind of dick move, and I’m pretty sure that they won’t be the last. But that damn sure doesn’t make it okay. This country as a whole, tends to have an issue with understanding that taking advantage of those that have less, is a shitty thing to do. Why this is still an issue all across this nation, I will never understand.
But if making a few extra billion in revenue for the year is the ultimate goal, then why in the hell are they going after the people that don’t have any money to start with? God forbid you take that 12 bucks from someone that actually HAS it, right? Instead, we’ll attack the underdogs that we know can’t possibly meet all of our requirements. I can’t even remember the last time I had a balance of over $1,500, and I damn sure know that it didn’t stay that way every day. Because I had to pay bills with that 1,500 bucks, and every other last dime that hit my bank account. This entire country has taken the stance of “fuck the poor, working man,” and Bank Of America just hopped right on that bandwagon.
There is a touch of light at the end of the tunnel though, because the majority of Americans are pissed, and they’re coming after you with torches and pitchforks, Bank Of America. They’re tired of being robbed. They’re tired of you taking their money to line your pockets, and they’re taking a stand. They’re closing their accounts and switching to establishments that don’t make them pay for their own money. They’re starting petitions and organizing protests. They’re done with your bullshit. Is it gonna solve the absolute highway robbery that is the U S of A? No, probably not. But if you ask me, it’s a damn good place to start. Y’all done fucked with the wrong twelve bucks.
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Andrea is a freelance writer based out of Kentucky. She is the mother to a 3 year old little girl and step-mother to a 6 year old boy. She’s been married to her husband and best friend for 5 years. She enjoys fishing, camping, hiking and the occasional glass of wine by a bonfire.