Bank of America Announces New Overdraft Policy

Apparently in response to new overdraft fee legislation that went into effect this year, Bank of America has announced changes to its overdraft protection policy. The new changes are ostensibly aimed at protecting its customers from fees. However, customers can still wind up paying overdraft charges/NSF fees. Read on!
Here is an overview of some of the announced changes. As a B of A customer, the overdraft fees you could pay - and whether charges made when your account lacks sufficient funds - will vary depending upon which setting you choose, the Standard Setting or the Decline-All Setting.

By default, customer will have the Standard Setting. With this setting:

• For ATM withdrawals and everyday (non-recurring) debit card charges, the bank will reject any charges made against an account with an insufficient balance. The bank customer will NOT be charged a fee in the process.
  
• However, for checks, recurring (e.g., monthly) debit card charges, and online banking payments made against an account that lacks sufficient funds, the bank will still pay the charges on the customer's behalf (even if the account balance is too low). This will result in their standard overdraft fee of $35, however.
  

However, customers can instead opt in to the Decline-All Setting. With this setting:

• All transactions (including recurring debit, non-recurring debit, check, and ATM withdrawal) will be declined if the account has insufficient funds in the account to cover the charge. A $35 fee will be charged for each and every declined transaction (except for everyday debit card charges).
  

For either situation, you can also choose to link an overdraft protection account such as a savings account, a second checking account, or a credit card. This will help you potentially minimize fees and allow more transactions to be processed since the primary checking account will have more "backup" funds. In this case, a $10 fee will still be charged for making the transfer in the case of non-sufficient funds in the primary checking account to cover a charge (but it is still less than the standard $35 NSF charge).

You can find out more details directly from B of A at: Bank of America Overdraft Under Control Announcement.

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If you truly want no-overdraft-fee checking, find a list of no-overdraft-fee banks at: No Overdraft Fee Banks List.