Why Some Banks Still Charge High Overdraft Fees

If you thought bank overdraft fees were no longer much of a problem, think again.The fees, which banks charge when you overspend your checking account but the bank covers the payment, remain stubbornly high at some banks after a rule limiting the charges was scrapped last year.The average fee among banks is $27, but charges can be as high as $42, according to Moebs Services, a financial research firm.(About half the purchases or withdrawals that lead to a fee are $50 or less, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found.)A small proportion of customers are responsible for the bulk of overdraft fees, which total billions in revenue to banks.

People are more likely to be charged the fees if they have lower incomes, have lower credit scores, are less educated and are nonwhite, federal research has found.Alex Horowitz, a project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said Pew’s research had found that the fees were widely unpopular.“We still see a lot of banks with overdraft fees in the $34 to $39 range,” he said.Some banks may offer a grace period — say, 24 hours — that allows customers to cover the shortfall before a fee is charged.

Additional fees, however, may be charged if the shortfall persists.Weren’t overdraft fees supposed to decline?A Biden-era rule that would have set a $5-per-incident cap on most overdraft fees was struck down last year by the Republican-controlled Congress and never took effect.The plan had been projected to save households that spend more than what is in their accounts an average of $225 a year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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