Bank of America will start charging “Free Checking” customers starting 2/1/07. The bank will switch change the accounts to “MyAccess” checking, with a fee of $5.95/month.

When one SlickDeal forum member called to complain, the BoA rep said, “It’s not a big deal…it’s less than $100 a year.”

Fees can be avoided, however, on BoA MyAccess checking if direct deposit is set up or if there is a scheduled transfer of $25+/month to a BoA savings account.

Several months ago, Bank of America offered a $100 signon bonus for opening a new checking account. We even encouraged readers to take advantage of this apparently “strings free” offer, even if they didn’t intend of continuing to bank with BoA.

Looks like now the heretofore invisible string has been plucked. What rhymes with plucked? — BEN POPKEN

Bank of America CHARGING for “free” checking [SlickDeals] (Thanks to Omri!)