Wells Fargo Joins in Changing Overdraft Practices
Wells Fargo this afternoon announced changes to its overdraft practices for Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers. In a press release, Wells Fargo said it will "eliminate overdraft fees for customers when they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less and will charge no more than four overdraft fees per day. In addition, Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers will be able to opt out of overdraft coverage, meaning customers can specify that they don’t want their transactions authorized into overdraft if funds aren’t available to cover the transaction."
“We want to deliver the best banking experience we can and believe these changes, in addition to the tools we already provide, will help our customers minimize overdraft fees,” said Carrie Tolstedt, senior executive vice president and head of Community Banking.
“Most of our customers don’t need overdraft coverage in any given month, but for those that do we hope these changes, along with the tools we already provide, will help them minimize overdraft fees. We continue to encourage everyone to manage their accounts and always monitor their balances because these are the best ways to steer clear of overdrafts.”
Wells Fargo offers numerous ways for customers to monitor their accounts, using online, email and mobile banking tools that can help them avoid overdraft fees. Wells Fargo also offers ways to link savings, lines of credit or credit card accounts to a customer’s checking account when there are not enough funds to cover a transaction.
Wells Fargo also offers My Spending Report with Budget Watch, a patented, free online money management tool that categorizes transactions and enables customers to track their spending by category, so they can identify opportunities to spend more carefully. It also helps customers create a budget in as few as two clicks and monitor their progress throughout the month – delivering the information customers need to stay on budget and gain more control of their finances.
More information will be made available to Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers over the coming months.
As of today, Feb 18th, 2010, this practice has not gone into effect. This statement from Wells Fargo was misleading at best, and major lawsuit at worst. They continue to deny customers to "opt" out of the overdraft. They continue to manipulate the order in which debits are applied to the accounts irregardless to when they are made, in order to maximise the nmber of overdraft fees charged($35 each) up to ten a day. A $.01 overdraft still costs $35 each.
Posted by: Brent Bullard | February 18, 2010 at 02:38 PM