Bank of America will begin charging debit card customers a $5 monthly fee for using their plastic to make purchases starting next year, according to spokeswoman Anne Pace. The move follows tests by other major banks, including Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase, to tack monthly fees onto debit cards.

The changes will only add to confusion for consumers who try to get the best deal -- or at least, pay the lowest fees -- when pulling plastic out of their wallets at checkout counters.

Banks are making the change because revenue from lucrative interchange fees paid by merchants -- so-called swipe fees -- is drying up. The Federal Reserve Board issued rules in June that essential cut swipe fees in half, from an average of 44 cents to 24 cents per transaction. The new rule takes effect Oct. 1, and Bank of America has said it will lose $2 billion annually because of the change.

So banks are trying to shift their costs onto consumers now.

"The economics of offering a debit card have changed with recent regulations, and we've decided to introduce a monthly fee for customers who use their debit cards for purchases," said Pace. "The price of a debit card was previously determined by the amount and type of transactions. We were able to pass some of these costs along to merchants, but because of regulatory changes, we are adjusting our pricing to reflect today’s economics."

The fees will allow Bank of America to continue to offer "fraud protection, overdraft prevention, record-keeping, fraud monitoring, and savings programs," Pace said. Customers will still be able to get cash at ATMs and use online bill-paying for free, she said, and consumers who don't make a debit purchase during any given month will not be assessed a fee.

which is why we should just hide all of our money under our bed.