If you’ve ever overdrawn your bank account, you know the pain of an overdraft fee. Most banks charge a hefty sum if you exceed your available bank balance by even a dollar or two. Most banks also let you disable this feature. Do you?


As personal finance site Clark Howard explains, overdraft protection is an optional service that saves you the “embarrassment” of having your card declined at a store. However, the price of saving face nets banks over $14 billion every year. Most often, it affects those who can afford it the least. Depending on your circumstances, it might just be wiser to turn it off entirely.

We want to know, what do you do with overdraft protection? Do you disable it entirely and suck it up when your card gets declined? Or do you voluntarily keep the fee in place as a painful reminder not to dip below your balance? Or do you, like me for a long time, have no idea that banks even let you disable overdraft protection? Let us know what you think.


Banks collect $14 billion from this one fee (but you can avoid paying it) | Clark Howard