"Automatic overdraft protection" is a lovely phrase, ingeniously designed to help you sleep at night while your bank performs that cattle-prod colonoscopy.



You can understand why banks consider that service with a smile: Fed officials say banks reap $30 billion annually from the overdraft fees. That's one of many reasons banks have increasingly come under pressure, in the bailout era, to ease off this "protection" racket.



They've promised several reforms. You just wouldn't know it from talking to Gwen Schnurman and her 15-year-old son, Eli Hirsch.



When he was 14, Hirsch signed up for Bank of America's CampusEdge Checking account. He's been dealing with money since he was in fourth grade -- "We did pretend stock market at Montessori school," he says -- and more recently while acting, playing in his band and staging a fundraiser for Mercy Corps.



Hirsch received a debit card and, although he didn't know it, automatic overdraft protection. That was supposedly good for Hirsch -- if he overdrew his account, Bank of America would still honor his charges -- and even better for the bank:



It would charge $35 for each and every overdraft.



On Jan. 28 -- and if you're a parent with teenagers, you surely saw this coming -- Gwen Schnurman checked Eli's account balance and discovered he was almost $435 in the red.



Over the course of seven days, Hirsch used his debit card 11 times, spending a total of $47.53 on lunch items at Burgerville, Wendy's and Marsee Baking.



Because he only had 49 cents in the account when the week began, he was hit with 11 overdraft fees of $35 each.



Schnurman was roundly annoyed Hirsch had lost track of his balance, and outraged that Bank of America never notified either of them that he was overdrawn.



She hustled over to the Sellwood branch she's used for 25 years, a branch she considers family, and asked, "Why didn't you notify me immediately? How could you not send me an e-email? One e-mail and this stops the first day."



As it turns out, overdraft protection -- and overdraft fees -- are automatic. You have to ask your bank for mobile alerts that tell you your account is overdrawn.



According to "reforms" Bank of America initiated in October, at least two of those $35 fees were against bank rules. "We no longer charge overdraft fees if you overdraft by less than $10," says Anne Pace, a bank spokeswoman in New York. "We've also capped the number of daily charges at four. It used to be 10."



BoA hit Hirsch with two $35 fees before he was overdrawn by $10.



Asked why the bank's snail-mailed notice of the overdrafts didn't arrive for nine days, Pace said, "If we see you are excessively overdrafting, we will reach out. This amount didn't trigger anything."



Hirsch and Schnurman are happy to concede he screwed up. He fell asleep at the switch. He forgot to check his balance.



But as Bank of America well knows, teenagers often do. If the bank truly wanted to develop brand loyalty in its young customers, why not slap the kid with an overdraft alert instead of $385 in fees?



"This is how they're making money on these kids," Schnurman said. "I thought I had a relationship with Bank of America. They've been my bank since I was 16. The loan for my first house was with them. Our kitchen loan. Our checking account.



"I want to leave them now. As trite as it sounds, they hurt my feelings. It doen't matter if my feelings aren't based on reality, and this corporation really isn't my friend. They crossed a line with me.



"I take this so personally."



--Steve Duin

