WASHINGTON -- After collecting well over 150,000 signatures in less than a week, District of Columbia resident Molly Katchpole, 22, followed through with her threat to close her account with Bank of America.
Appearing outside a Bank of America branch at 18th and K Streets NW, Katchpole spoke with reporters about her plan of action before going inside.
"I'm going to go inside, tell them, calmly, that I would like to close my bank account. Then I'd like to ask if I could hand these to [Bank of America CEO] Brian Moynihan. I know he was here yesterday; I don't know if he's here today. But if he is, that would be really cool. If he's not, I'll pass them off."
Then Katchpole cut up her debit card in front of reporters to show her commitment to following through with her threat. When asked if there was anything the bank could do to prevent her from closing her account, Katchpole responded, "No, I'm just fed up."
As she told The Huffington Post on Wednesday, Katchpole said this movement is about more then just her.
"I work two part-time jobs, and $5 might not seem like a lot of money to the people who made the decision, but to thousands of people right now, an extra $60 a year to a company they just bailed out with their tax money is not okay," she said. "It's not okay with me, and so when I made the decision, I knew that other people would be fed up with it, too."
Katchpole said that people who wouldn't be affected by the change were also upset.
"If you read the reasons why people signed [the petition], they were really upset. Some people said, 'I have a premium account, so this wouldn't even affect me, but I am still closing my bank account and moving to another bank because this is outrageous.'"
After about 20 minutes, she went into the bank branch to close her account; she came back outside and called the whole thing "just a business transaction."
The employees didn't have much of a reaction to the petition but promised to relay her petition to more senior employees in Bank of America.
When asked how she felt about the whole ordeal, Katchpole responded, "liberated, I feel good."
WATCH: Bank of America Debit Fee Controversy
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