Overdraft fees can be a significant and unnecessary expense, particularly if you have to pay them often.
That doesn’t have to be the case though. There are easy actions you can take to avoid them and ways you can negotiate to get them waived if you are charged.
Here’s what you need to know about overdraft fees.
What is an overdraft fee?
Overdraft fee definition
The name says it all. An overdraft fee is what a bank charges you any time you withdraw more money from your account than what you have in it.
Even if you do your best to keep tabs on your money, sometimes accidents happen. You lose track and make a payment, or forget that you have a bill set up on auto-draft, and you withdraw more than the amount you have in your account.
If you are covered by your bank’s automatic overdraft service, the bank will cover the charge and it will still get paid. Your account balance will dip below zero and you will have a negative balance representing the amount you now owe to the bank.
Part of that negative balance is the amount of the payment the bank paid on your behalf. Essentially the bank loaned you the money, and it will expect to get the money back.The rest is an overdraft fee the bank charged for covering the payment.
Suppose you have $50 in your account, but use your debit card, make an online payment or write a check on that account for $75. You are $25 short, but the bank would loan you the $25 and the payment would clear. Now assume your bank charges you a $30 overdraft fee. The $25 overdraft plus the $30 fee would give you a negative balance of $55.
Overdraft fees have risen over the last 20 years. They vary from bank to bank, with an average overdraft fee of $33.36, according to Bankrate’s 2019 checking account and ATM fee study. That can add up to a significant amount if you keep piling them on.
Here’s a sample of the overdraft fees charged by some popular financial institutions:
How to Avoid Overdraft Fees
Nobody wants to pay more in bank fees than they have to, and overdraft fees are pretty easy to avoid if you take some basic precautions. A few things you can do to dodge overdraft fees are:
1. Opt out of automatic overdrafts
While overdrafts are meant to help you avoid embarrassing and inconvenient unpaid payments, you don’t have to accept the service. When you open a new account, part of the paperwork you fill out addresses whether or not you want to take advantage of this service. You can simply opt out of automatic overdrafts to avoid the fees altogether. If you opt out of overdraft coverage, your bank won’t cover you if you overdraw your account and will return any payments that you can’t make as unpaid.
2. Use an account that doesn’t charge you
Some accounts don’t charge overdraft fees. Varo has No Fee Overdraft, which will cover any overdrafts you make up to $50 without charging you an overdraft fee. SpotMe, a service from Chime, gives you the ability to overdraft your account by up to $100 without an overdraft fee.
3. Sign up for bank alerts
A simple way to help yourself avoid unexpected overdrafts and save fees is to set up an alert to notify you when your account balance falls below a certain amount. For example, you could have your bank send automatic notifications any time your account balance drops to $250, $500 or whatever amount keeps you comfortably away from an unexpected overdraft based on your spending habits. When you get the alert, you can decide to stop spending or deposit more money into the account.
4. Overdraft protection
It may sound similar, but overdraft protection is different from automatic overdrafts. With automatic overdrafts, your bank covers any overdraw on your behalf by automatically loaning you the money and making the payment. With overdraft protection, the bank will transfer money from one of your other accounts to cover an overdrawn amount. For example, if you overdraw your checking account but have overdraft protection set up with a savings account, the bank would automatically move money from your savings account to your checking account. The bank may charge you for this service, however.
5. Keep a cushion balance
Try keeping a little extra in your account to cover those forgotten or unexpected charges. “One mistake consumers often make in this area is forgetting about recurring transactions like subscriptions or automatic monthly payments,” says debt expert Jackie Beck. “One way to avoid overdraft fees is to make sure you keep a cushion in your checking account above and beyond what you normally spend each month.”
How to Get Overdraft Fees Waived
If you are charged an overdraft fee, that doesn’t always mean you are stuck paying it. It doesn’t hurt to negotiate to try to have the fee reimbursed. To try to get overdraft fees waived:
Call the bank
There’s no guarantee it will work, but you can always call the bank and politely ask the financial institution to remove the charge from your account. “If it’s your first offense, your bank will often work with you,” says Chris Abrams, founder of Abrams Insurance Solutions.
Your odds of success go up if you infrequently overdraw your account, remain polite, and are an otherwise good bank customer. Don’t expect an easy yes though. Be prepared to explain why the bank should waive the fee for you.
Try an app
You can also use an app that will help negotiate overdraft fee refunds for you. Cushion will monitor your linked accounts and automatically message your bank to pursue a refund if you are charged an overdraft fee, for example.
Bottom Line
Automatic overdrafts provide some convenience but overdraft fees can become very expensive, especially if you overdraw often. Consider the different ways you can avoid overdraft fees and follow a strategy that works for you.
Learn more:
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September 04, 2020 at 09:26PM
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What is an overdraft fee and how do you avoid it? - Bankrate.com
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