Bank overdraft fees are hated by so many people that they're probably the most common complaint we hear about at Whistleblower. Over the past two days, my colleague Chris Serres has chronicled the epiphanies sweeping through bank headquarters that their overdraft fee binge is at an end. First, Serres wrote about the change of heart of a group of big banks, including Wells Fargo. Today, he wrote about how U.S. Bank is following suit.
Though consumer groups and some members of Congress say the changes don't go far enough, they would at least prevent the kind of situation experienced by Dave Amies, whom I blogged about on Monday. Under a number of the voluntary changes by banks, overdrafts of $10 or under - such as Amies' $2.27 debit - would no longer incur an overdraft fee, which is as high as $37.50 as some banks.
Those policies, which include logging customer transactions in such a way to maximize overdraft fees, are on track to give banks a record $43 billion from the fees this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. It will be interesting to see whether these recent concessions go far enough to calm the furor.
