Comments on: Strategies for Avoiding Overdraft Fees http://www.moneyhacks.org/2007/01/07/strategies-for-avoiding-overdraft-fees/ Tips and tools to save time and money. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:42:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: k34h2qf9vy2 http://www.moneyhacks.org/2007/01/07/strategies-for-avoiding-overdraft-fees/#comment-93 k34h2qf9vy2 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 23:49:25 +0000 http://www.moneyhacks.org/2006/10/04/strategies-for-avoiding-overdraft-fees/#comment-93 Many banks offer overdraft protection by offering a credit line, claiming that if you bounce a check you'll pay less in interest than the overdraft fees. What they don't tell you is that the interest rate are as high as credit card interest but at least with a credit card you don't pay interest until after the bill is due. It seems like the banks are using this as a gimick to lure people who are on the edge of having financial problems (ie people who have frequent overdrafts) into becoming dependent on credit which will practically gurantee that they do get into financial trouble. Or, they're trying to recapture people who had problems with credit cards and are trying to give up credit. Disgusting. Many banks offer overdraft protection by offering a credit line, claiming that if you bounce a check you’ll pay less in interest than the overdraft fees. What they don’t tell you is that the interest rate are as high as credit card interest but at least with a credit card you don’t pay interest until after the bill is due.

It seems like the banks are using this as a gimick to lure people who are on the edge of having financial problems (ie people who have frequent overdrafts) into becoming dependent on credit which will practically gurantee that they do get into financial trouble. Or, they’re trying to recapture people who had problems with credit cards and are trying to give up credit.

Disgusting.

]]> By: Liz Pulliam Weston http://www.moneyhacks.org/2007/01/07/strategies-for-avoiding-overdraft-fees/#comment-5 Liz Pulliam Weston Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:23:12 +0000 http://www.moneyhacks.org/2006/10/04/strategies-for-avoiding-overdraft-fees/#comment-5 Good for you for starting this blog--there are plenty of great hacks to share. On overdraft protection: folks need to know that some banks and credit unions offer "bounce protection," which sounds the same as overdraft protection, but isn't. The financial institution signs you up automatically, charges you a per-check fee and sometimes a per-day fee, and many even add the amount of the bounce check "protection" to your balance so that you can't tell when you're about to overdraw your account. I wrote more about it here: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/DontBeDupedByBouncedCheckProtection.aspx Obviously, this can be a pretty bad deal for consumers. Real overdraft protection makes a lot more sense. Good for you for starting this blog–there are plenty of great hacks to share. On overdraft protection: folks need to know that some banks and credit unions offer “bounce protection,” which sounds the same as overdraft protection, but isn’t. The financial institution signs you up automatically, charges you a per-check fee and sometimes a per-day fee, and many even add the amount of the bounce check “protection” to your balance so that you can’t tell when you’re about to overdraw your account. I wrote more about it here:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/DontBeDupedByBouncedCheckProtection.aspx

Obviously, this can be a pretty bad deal for consumers. Real overdraft protection makes a lot more sense.

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