Bank of America how to legitimately waive BoA monthly fees in Staten Island, NY (2026)

By Pablo Diaz · I left BoA after years as a customer. Read the full story →

Most NY business owners I talk to do not know the full BoA fee structure until they have already paid it. The schedule below is from BoA's own published fee disclosures, plus the public CFPB record on practices that have been the subject of enforcement.

How to legitimately waive BoA monthly fees

Legitimate BoA monthly fee waiver paths per their published schedule: (1) maintain $5,000 average monthly balance on Business Advantage Fundamentals, or $15,000 combined on Relationship Banking; (2) meet qualifying activity tiers (debit spend + deposit volume + direct deposits — exact thresholds on BoA's site); (3) qualify for Preferred Rewards for Business based on combined balances across BoA + Merrill accounts. For a Staten Island business that does not naturally hit those thresholds, the simpler answer is often switching to a $0-monthly-fee alternative (Mercury, RHO, Novo, Relay, Bluevine standard). Compare structures at noizz.io/business-banking/staten-island-ny.

Staten Island context

In Staten Island, NY, the relevant comparison for BoA's fee schedule is what software-driven alternatives charge for the same use case. The schedule below is one half of that comparison.

Public regulator record on BoA fees

• CFPB 2023 enforcement order — $250M total — junk fees, double-charged overdraft fees, withheld credit-card rewards, fake accounts.
• CFPB Consumer Complaint Database — Bank of America — public, searchable, tens of thousands of complaints (a large share fee-related).
• BoA business checking fee disclosure — source-of-truth for current published rates. Verify before acting.

If you want to dispute a BoA fee in Staten Island

1. Pull the statement showing the fee. Screenshot it.
2. Compare against BoA's published fee schedule. If it does not match, document the discrepancy.
3. Request a written explanation through BoA secure message. Save the response.
4. If the explanation is unsatisfactory, file a CFPB complaint at consumerfinance.gov/complaint with the documentation. Free, public, and tends to get a documented response.
5. For overdraft-fee disputes specifically: reference the CFPB 2023 order in your complaint if your situation matches the practices it cited.

Other NY cities

• BoA fees in New York City, NY
• BoA fees in Brooklyn, NY
• BoA fees in Queens, NY
• BoA fees in Bronx, NY
• BoA fees in Yonkers, NY
• BoA fees in New Rochelle, NY
• BoA customer-experience review for Staten Island →
• Staten Island consumer-banking rights →
• Compare 50+ business banks for Staten Island (Noizz) →