The woman who took on Bank of America

Molly Katchpole took on the big bank and won, said Ian Shapira in The Washington Post. In October, the 22-year-old recent college graduate’s ire was raised when she read about Bank of America’s plan to start charging customers $5 a month to use their debit cards. A Bank of America customer, she went online to a do-it-yourself petition site and began typing her frustrations.

“When the recession first hit, we gave Bank of America billions of dollars in bailout money,’’ Katchpole wrote. “Our reward is higher fees for the same services. At some point, we’ve got to say enough is enough.” She posted the gripe, and within a month, 300,000 people had signed her petition. Last week, the bank backed off, largely in response to Katchpole’s petition.

She was just doing what she’s always done. She grew up writing letters to her local newspaper; she once complained about a state senator’s proposal to make the driver’s license test English only. “I wrote the paper saying we had bigger things to worry about,” she says. For now, she’s worried about paying her bills. She has struggled to find full-time work. But things may be changing. She’s been getting emails from nonprofits. “People keep asking me what I am going to do next. I don’t know. I’m not much of a policy wonk. But I am absolutely an activist at heart.”

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