The cost to overdraw a bank account could drop to as little as $3 under a proposal announced by the White House, the latest effort by the Biden administration to combat fees it says pose an unnecessary burden on American consumers, particularly those living paycheck to paycheck.
The change could potentially eliminate billions of dollars in fee revenue for the nation’s biggest banks, which were gearing up for a battle even before Wednesday’s announcement. Exactly how much revenue depends on which version of the new regulation is adopted.
Banks charge a customer an overdraft fee if their bank account balance falls below zero. Overdraft started as a courtesy offered to some customers when paper checks used to take days to clear, but proliferated thanks to the growing popularity of debit cards.
The thing I don’t see anyone talking about is how you can either go in and tell your bank to no longer allow your account to go in the negative making it so your funds just stop and can’t spend more negating overdraft fees. Or, like I did go in and open a credit line specifically designed to withdraw when you overdraft. This also negates the fee. It does accrue interest like any credit if you are unable to pay it back when it’s due but still you don’t have overdraft fees. Like overdraft fees are just lazy people tax. Not even poor people tax cause it’s super easy to get them to go away. 🙄
Bingo. Mine had some weird 2-layer thing where I had to go back and have them turn the second layer of “protection” off, so there’s that. But yeah, refuse the “service”.
While we’re at it, why is anyone using banks for personal finance?! FFS, put your money in a credit union who isn’t actively working to rob you.
Even credit unions aren’t above this shit. At the end of the day, its a Principle-Agent problem. Some Credit Union execs will hose their clients as gleefully as any BoA VP.
Not everyone is able to use a credit union. Not only do they have limited membership but more importantly may have financial requirements.
For example after a financial catastrophe caused by a medical issue, one step in my recovery was moving everything to a credit union. However I was refused, based on my newly fallen credit score. I only got in by co-signing from my spouse (unemployed, so wtf)
I stayed away from credit unions because I believed as you do regarding membership. And that was very true decades ago! Now, even in my small city, I can join several.
Yeah, they’re going to check your credit, but they’re no different than banks in that. Are you saying you got a bank account after being refused by the credit union?
I’ve never had a credit check when opening a checking account. Where is this normal?
If I overdraft it pulls from another account that I have. I still get hit with an overdraft charge even though there was money in the other account to cover it. It’s not necessarily as simple as you say.
You could bring up the argument of changing banks, but aside from that one issue, the bank I use has done really well by me, to include reversing a debit (not credit) card charge when there was a bad charge.
Realistically, the overdraft charge should be eliminated and banks just shouldn’t allow the charges to go through unless there is a separate account that has money to cover it.
Unfortunately some people don’t qualify for credit but yes, they could request no overdrafts.