No, there’s a US law now where they have to allow you to opt out of overdraft “protection”. They just decline the transaction but don’t charge you any fees.
If only they didn’t charge fees. My bank charges an insufficient funds fee that’s conveniently the same amount as the overdraft protection fee. So my options are eat the fee and get my stuff, or eat the fee and not get my stuff.
I’m not entirely sure this is legal, but I was told directly by a representative that these were my options. It’s quite literally a poor tax.
Since I opted out of overdraft protection several years ago with my credit union, I’ve never been charged insufficient fund fee. Sounds like banks are doing shady/shity things to their consumers again. When will people learn to leave banks and go to a credit union that cares about their people before profits?
I love that last line that shifts the onus of responsibility to the consumer.
Really, though, I’ve gone through a few banks, and am current with a credit union. They’re better than what I got with the banks, but they’re still shady, still wont to charge whatever fees they can get away with. There’s very little oversight, and in a lot of cases you’re kinda stuck with what you get.
Mentioned in another post, but I don’t qualify for many credit unions beyond my local one that I currently use. I’ve used a few different bank options, but none of them have really been any better, and usually worse.
I use a credit union and they don’t penalize for either one. There’s a small “get gud with money” fee for the transfer if you use overdraft protection, something like $1.50 or whatever, but I don’t think there’s an insufficient funds fee at all. They just decline the transaction. I mean it’s not like it actually costs them anything to compare the incoming charge to your account balance, so a fee for not being on the ball is silly.
So your options might actually be “eat the fee, or switch banking institutions”, but they won’t tell you that, ofc.
Well, yeah, switching institutions is always an option, unfortunately it’s not a great one here. I’ve used a few, and unfortunately this one seems to be the best in my area.
