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“Banks call it a service,” the president said. “I call it exploitation.”
The Biden administration unveiled a new rule Wednesday aimed at slashing bank overdraft fees to as low as $3, a move the president said would help end abusive practices by financial institutions.
Under the proposal, banks could continue to charge fees when a customer’s account falls below zero, but either at a price in line with the bank’s actual costs to administer the overdraft or at an established benchmark created by the new rule.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed potential fees of $3, $6, $7 or $14 and is seeking feedback from banks and the public on what would be appropriate. Current overdraft fees often push $30 or more, taking a significant bite out of low-income accounts.
“to my understanding most cards in the US are credit cards”
This statement confuses me a bit, but I guess that adds to the misunderstanding? Debit and credit cards are tied to different types of accounts. Which you’re using depends on if you have the money and want it immediately removed from your checking account, or if you want to “borrow” and pay the total once a month.
When I helped my sons open their first checking accounts and got their debit cards, we had to “opt in” to not allow overdrafts and to have purchases cancelled, but that option would expire once they hit a certain age and would have to select it again. The backup to that is if you have a savings account, the accounts can be linked so that if you were to overdraft, the extra would be taken from savings to prevent overdraft fees.
These are all great things, assuming you have money in the first place. If you believe Americans are using credit cards more often than debit, it’s probably 1) because CC companies incentivize us to do so, or 2) people just generally don’t have the money to meet their needs in the first place, so juggle and borrow funds as they try to keep their heads above water.
That was my point, yes. Also, see my other comment, I live in Europe where credit lines (we do have the so-called “shopping” cards offering fixed installments for purchases but also overdraft at an ATM) aren’t the norm here and people opening up such an account take it more seriously and pay attention not to overdraft. “Building your credit score” isn’t a thing here. Confusing terms and scum agents promoting those cards do trick people into overdrafting and paying huge monthly interests (30% / year) instead of fixed installments, though.