eradicated annoyances

Bank of America Plans to Eliminate Overdraft Fees on Debit Purchases

Nothing is quite so infuriating as scrolling down your online banking statement and discovering that the $40 Uniqlo T-shirt you just had to have actually ended up costing you $75. Thankfully, for Bank of America members, those days are over. The bank said on Tuesday that, effective this summer, it will no longer charge overdraft fees on purchases made with debit cards. Instead, when a customer makes a purchase with a debit card without enough money in his account, his card will just be declined.

The decision means the bank will lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue, as debit purchases account for roughly 60 percent of overdrafts at Bank of America. Banks are anticipating a new federal rule that will require them to get permission from account holders before they would provide them with overdraft services.

What our customers kept telling me is ‘just don’t let me spend money that I don’t have,’” said Susan Faulkner, the bank’s deposit and card product executive. “We wanted to help them avoid those unexpected overdraft fees.”


Normally we would kind of be rolling our eyes at something so transparently designed as a “push to build trust among customers,” but … this is kind of undeniably great.

Bank of America to End Overdraft Fees on Debit Purchases [NYT]

Bank of America Plans to Eliminate Overdraft Fees on Debit Purchases