my interview with alma powell on what they re trying to do to turn that around. an estimated 160,000 students are too afraid to go to school every day. why? and let s fix it. but first, paying the bank to use your own money. by now, you have heard that bank of america wants to charge a $5 fee to use a debit card. it is a trend. citibank moved to end free checking and chase in some states will be charging similar purchase fees. consumers as you might already know are not very happy about it. greg mcbride is an analyst at bankrate.com and legal ger at fortune. people are so mad and we all know that free checking is dwindling. that s down from 76% two years ago. the answer if you hate the fees is community banks, credit unions, not for profit by the way and stays to stay with the bank and avoid the fees but maybe only if you have money, investment accounts, maybe a mortgage. how do you avoid the bank fees? well, i think that s the main point, christine. we are not hostage to t
worry about right now, but i do think he s tapping into the consumer sentiment out there that people are fed up with what they feel like they are being nickel and dimed for so many costs, utility costs going up, membership warehouse fees going up. when we talk about the banks blaming higher fees on tighter regulations, in this economy, which is still sluggish, why after these massive bailouts, people like bank of america i m a bank of america guy, i don t want to be getting this burden knowing they are going to be hiking up fees for regular checking accounts. how are customers supposed to fight back? one, if you re worried about having debit fees you have to pay for, think about using credit cards more often. in general, credit cards haven t been subjected to the same type of fee increases we ve been seeing on the debit card side. obviously, if you re going to be using the credit card more, pay