Bank of America fee rules to ease

LOS ANGELES – Bank of America Corp. plans to make it much easier for customers to dodge its planned $5 monthly fee for debit cards, a person familiar with the bank’s strategy says.

The $5 fee isn’t going away. But under proposed revisions to the plan, “most of our customers won’t pay it,” according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bank of America initially had said it would waive the fee only if a customer had a Bank of America mortgage or $20,000 in accounts at the bank and its Merrill Lynch brokerage.

It’s now planning on lowering the minimum balance requirement significantly.