Bank of America

www.bankamerica.com

Bank of America now offers free account access.

Bank of America (San Francisco, CA; $263.6 billion; 10.8 million ATM cards) eliminated its online access fee on November 25. BofA was one of the few major bank still clinging to the old pricing model: a monthly fee for online account access and bill payment.

BofA has now moved to the industry standard pricing model, free online account access with a monthly fee for optional bill payment. This is the only model that makes sense long-term. Users won’t stand for a fee to “buy” access to data that they have generated themselves and paid for once (via checking account fees or balances), especially when it is far cheaper for the bank to allow access to the data online than via other methods (call center, branch, ATM).

The change at BofA isn’t really as dramatic a departure as it seems. The bank was already waiving monthly fees for many of its most popular checking account packages. Bank customers using Versatel checking (with direct deposit), Prima checking, or MasterCard Relationship account will continue to enjoy account access and bill payment free-of-charge. Everyone else will pay $5.95 for the optional bill payment, a $0.55 monthly fee reduction from the previous charge of $6.50/mo.

Not to be outdone, cross-town rival Wells Fargo (San Francisco, CA; $101.3 billion; 9.9 million ATM cards) instituted a free bill payment program across its entire checking account base, provided the user keeps $5,000 in deposit balances. Otherwise, the bill payment fee is $5/month. Up to 25 payments per month are included free, then a $0.40 per item charge kicks in.

Wells Fargo announces free bill pay on its Web, www.wellsfargo.com .

Separately, BofA also added credit card account data to its HomeBanking package.

Michael A. DeVico heads the Interactive Banking Division at BofA, 415.622.3456.