Yesterday, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank announced they were changing their policies to allow customers to opt out of overdraft protection. Wells Fargo decided to follow in their footsteps late yesterday, announcing a number of changes at this bank. The following changes also apply to Wachovia, the bank that was acquired by Wells Fargo several months ago.
Wells Fargo is eliminating overdraft fees if the account is overdrawn by less than $5 and are limiting overdrafts to only four per day. Customers will be allowed to opt out of overdraft protection, so they don’t incur fees but transactions that would bring their accounts below zero will be declined.
All of these changes are improvements, although I see no reason for a bank to charge more than one fee per day. Regardless of what a bank charges, customers have the responsibility to monitor their own accounts. Accidents and emergencies happen, but in the end we should all be aware of what we have in the bank. The best defense against excessive bank fees is to pay attention and give the banks no reason to charge them. Here are some tips for avoiding overdraft fees.
Wells Fargo Announces Changes to Overdraft Practices, September 23, 2009
JP Morgan Chase Bank is offering a $100 bonus for new customers who sign up for the Chase Checking account. If you are not a current customer of Chase, you can qualify for this $100 bonus with an initial deposit of $100 and by initiating a direct deposit or five purchases using your new debit card within 60 days. You will receive your $100 bonus 10 days after your direct deposit or fifth debit card purchase.
Like most account opening bonuses, the $100 is considered interest, so it will be reported to the IRS as interest income. You might owe taxes on the bonus as you would owe taxes on other interest earned in bank accounts.
Keep in mind that in order for this account to remain free, you have to abide by Chase Bank’s rules. Keep your direct deposit or make five debit card purchases each month to avoid a $6 monthly fee.
Also, if you close your account within six months, Chase will take the bonus back.
You can either apply for the account online or at a branch. To generate and retrieve your coupon, click here. This coupon expires December 31, 2009, but if there are more coupons after that point I will post them here.
Overdraft fees are nothing to sneeze at. Having not always been a model bank customer, I know how it feels like an unfair punishment to have roughly $30 taken away when my account is already negative. I’ve also worked for Bank of America, and I can see why they use a dis-incentive to drive away bad customers.
I was a pretty generous Customer Service Rep., and would refund overdraft fees to as many customers as I could. But sometimes there’d be an awkward conversation when a customer would ask, “How can I stop getting these overdraft fees in the future?”
Naturally, I’d go into my speech about keeping a balanced checkbook (or something similar) with you, and how the “available balance” you’d get from an ATM or the phone service was often a lie. Some customers persisted (as well they should) and felt like there should be a way to not be allowed to go negative. It was tricky, and unlikely, but not always impossible to get your branch manager to agree to put that kind of hold on your account.
But now, any Bank of America customer can opt-out of overdrafting. If you’re down to $2.12 in your checking account, and you go to buy a Frappucino, you’ll have your card rejected at the register.
In addition, Bank of America also decided it won’t impose an overdraft fee if your account is above -$10, unless you don’t fix it within five days. And the limit of overdraft fees you can get in one day is now four, instead of ten.
JP Morgan Chase also announced that they’ll be changing their policies:
Starting in the first quarter of 2010, the bank will make overdraft protection opt-in for all customers, post transactions to accounts as they occur, and eliminate fees when accounts are overdrawn by $5 or less. It will also reduce the maximum number of fees per day to three from six.
Bank Of America Backpedals On Overdraft Fees, Huffington Post, Sep. 22, 2009
See our update with a new code.
Chase is offering a $100 bonus if you open a checking account by July 7, 2009. There is no maintenance fee with this checking account as long as you activate a direct deposit or use your debit card for purchases five times each statement period. There is no minimum balance requirement, but an initial deposit of $100 within sixty days is required to qualify for the bonus.
If you live near a Chase branch, you can take this code with you when you open your account. Otherwise, you can open your account online at Chase’s website.
The coupon codes are good for one use only, so if you want to earn this bonus you must be quick to act.
3471822349438807 (Expires July 7, 2009)
If you have received coupons on the mail which you do not intend to use, please post the codes in the comments so others can take advantage of the bonus. I’ll add any posted bonus codes to this article.
While working at Bank of America, I learned a magic phrase that I hadn’t heard before: “verify funds.”
When someone writes you a check (I know, it’s 2009, but even I use them sometimes for plumbers or whatnot), you may feel uncomfortable about whether the check author has enough money to cover it. If you’ve ever deposited a “funny” check, particularly for a large amount, you know how painful it can be to have the money credited and then later taken back out. Fortunately, sometimes you can find out in advance if the check is good.
In general, you call the bank that houses the check author’s account, provide them the check information and they’ll tell you either yes or no. Of course, even if they say yes, that information is only foolproof for about the next 3 seconds, since any number of things could happen before you deposit or cash the check, but it’s better than not knowing.
Ironically, it’s more useful when they tell you, “No, funds aren’t currently available to cover that check,” because now you have options.
- You can keep trying every day until funds are available
- You can contact the check author and work out a different method of payment
- You can decide never to do business with that person again
I did a little research for us all and called the top 6 national banks (some of them several times) and asked whether they would verify funds for a third party (the recipient of the check). Here are the results:
| Name of Bank |
Over the phone? |
In person? |
| Bank of America |
No |
Yes |
| Chase |
Yes |
Yes |
| Wells Fargo |
Yes |
Yes |
| Citibank |
No |
Yes |
| PNC Bank |
Yes (for a $5 fee)
1-900-988-4762 |
No (but every other bank said Yes, so…) |
| U.S. Bank |
Yes |
Yes |
If you’ve had an experience lately that doesn’t match the table, please leave a comment and I can revisit my findings.
Earlier this year, JP Morgan Chase surprised customers with a new fee and an increased minimum required monthly payment. For cardholders who carried large balances month to month, Chase began charging a $10 monthly fee and increasing the minimum payment from 2% to 5% of the balance. The change was announced last November for about 300,000 customers and took effect in January. (See our previous coverage and visitor comments.)
Andrew Cuomo, the New York Attorney General received so many complaints about the surprise move, he required the company to refund the income collected from these fees, totaling $4.4 million, back to customers. Even though the order came from the Attorney General’s office, the official statement from Chase cites customers’ concerns as the reasons for the policy reversal.
The idea that credit card companies can change the terms of their agreements with customers at any time and that customers do not have the same power short of canceling the card provides a strong argument for never carrying a balance from one month to the next, charging only what you can pay off with income before the payment is due. Realizing that we don’t live in a perfect world, this isn’t always possible. But watch for notices in the mail from your credit card company which sometimes these notices arrive in unlabeled envelopes. They can contain information pertaining to changes in your agreement which, if you pay attention, you may decide are not worth continuing your relationship with the company.
See our update with a new code.
The bank Washington Mutual isn’t completely dead yet. Here is a new promotion code that will provide a $100 bonus for opening a new checking account. There are a few requirements in order to receive the bonus, however. You must open the account before March 28, 2009 with a minimum opening deposit of $100 (not including the bonus). If the account remains in good standing, you will receive the $100 bonus within twelve weeks after initiating the first direct deposit into the account. A monthly (or more frequent) direct deposit is necessary in order to qualify for the $100 bonus, and you have only sixty days to send the first direct deposit.
Here is the code: 2960-ADHH-5041
Enter the above code at free.wamu.com to apply for the account and earn the $100 bonus.
Thanks to Consumerism Commentary reader Yana who let me know about this new bonus. If you have tips about free money or anything else you think would interest readers, send us an email at tips at this domain name or send me a message on Twitter.
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