The company said it expects that the changes in its fee structure, which took effect last month, will reduce by about half the average cost to students who use the campus debit cards. | Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Wells Fargo FINANCE & TAX Wells Fargo drops some fees on campus debit cards after criticism

Wells Fargo announced on Wednesday that it will stop charging some fees on its debit card product that is marketed on college campuses after facing months of criticism over the issue.

The company said it expects that the changes in its fee structure, which took effect last month, will reduce by about half the average cost to students who use the campus debit cards.


Several prominent Democratic lawmakers and consumer groups criticized Wells Fargo after an “unpublished” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report last year showed it was charging college students fees that were, on average, several times higher than some of its competitors.

Wells Fargo said it would waive one overdraft fee each month and stop charging a fee for using its overdraft protection service. In addition, students will be allowed four no-fee withdrawals from non-Wells Fargo ATMs each month as well as one free incoming wire transfer.

Ed Kadletz, head of Wells Fargo’s deposit products group, said in a statement that the bank was responding to “what we have learned from our own customers” as well as “the findings of the industry study of campus card programs released at the end of last year.”

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The CFPB report showed that Wells Fargo was responsible for roughly one-quarter of financial products provided to students under marketing agreements with colleges. But the bank collected more than half of all fees paid by students, according to the report. Wells Fargo’s average annual fee per account was nearly $50, the highest of any provider in the report.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate, said in January that Wells Fargo “does not belong on college campuses” because of the “exorbitant banking fees” it charged students. Warren also sent letters to 31 college presidents about Wells Fargo’s fees on student products to help inform their “future agreements with banks to provide services” on campuses.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, also similarly called the CFPB report “deeply troubling.”

Kaitlyn Vitez, higher education campaign director at U.S. PIRG, a consumer group that has long been critical of products that banks market to students on campus, said that the changes by Wells Fargo were positive but didn’t go far enough.

“It’s a good first step, but they should just eliminate these overdraft and other fees all the way,” she said. The group on Wednesday published a report that called on the Education Department to investigate Wells Fargo’s fees on products it markets through agreements with colleges.

Education Department rules, enacted by the Obama administration over objections from bank industry groups, require colleges to make sure that the financial products they help promote on their campus are “not inconsistent with the best financial interests” of students.