Alliant Credit Union has announced it has removed all overdraft fees effective 8/2/21. To begin with these fees will be refunded within two business days of being incurred until the systems can be updated to remove these fees entirely.
Hat tip to reader Warner
They’ll just close your account instantly if you overdraft
I just got charged an overdraft fee 2 days ago because I accidentally picked my alliant account for a payment that I no longer use. wonder if they can waive it
It’s worth asking
I don’t get how this will work. Will they still honor the check? If so, when/how does the bank get their money back? Does it become a loan? Do they just bounce the check?
yes
I don’t have any experience with Alliant, but most institutions will make a decision at the time that a debit is presented
They’ll generally only accept it and let your account go negative, if there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll make them whole. If you don’t make a habit of this sort of thing, it’s not a very large amount, and have a regular deposit or money in other accounts, they would very likely accept it
It won’t become a loan and, if you leave the negative balance for an extended period, they will probably close your accounts
See the account agreement and disclosure:
https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/images/uploads/files/AccountAgreementAndDisclosures.pdf
7. TRANSACTION LIMITATIONS
a. Withdrawal Restrictions. We permit withdrawals only if your account has sufficient available funds to cover the full amount of the withdrawal or you have an established overdraft protection plan.
Checks or other transfer or payment orders that are drawn against insufficient funds may be subject to a service charge as set forth in the Fee Schedule. If there are sufficient funds to cover some,
but not all, of your withdrawal, we may allow those withdrawals for which there are sufficient funds in any order at our discretion. We may refuse to allow a withdrawal in some situations, and will advise
you accordingly; for example: (1) a dispute between account owners (unless a court has ordered Alliant to allow the withdrawal); (2) a legal garnishment or attachment is served; (3) the account secures any
obligation to us; (4) required documentation has not been presented; (5) you fail to repay an Alliant loan on time.
So, unless you have OD protection or available funds in your savings, they still likely bounce the check. In the OD protection section, they detail how OD’s can occur and what may happen, when they do pay the check but OD your account
If they bounce it, depending on who that check is to, the other party may still charge a returned check fee. It’s 100% NOT a loan, nor do they welcome your bad checks with open arms.
As someone else said, even if you don’t get a fee, they can restrict your account, or might just close it. I don’t have a lot of experience in this area, but I am sure it happens. Banks/credit unions get to pick who they keep and who they throwback.
The idea is that if a small error is made by someone who is struggling, it doesn’t turn into a huge setback. Legitimate mistakes happen, and some banks stack the fees for each occurrence, so three $5 overdrafts in the same month can easily turn into a $150+ mistake.
I have seen a couple of banks like Huntington that allow you to catch up your account within 24 hours of an overdraft and not charge an OD fee. Of course, that only helps if you are aware of your balances and have the means to rush to correct the issue the very next business day.
I initiated a pull from SoFi for same day money availability and withdrew money at the ATM that day. Unfortunately the ACH was return unpaid from Midland because my account was frozen. I went negative $500. Luckily I wasn’t charged an overdraft from Sofi but now I’m in the dog house with no more same day ACH. SoFi fraud warned me not to do too many or I can be closed. Not sure how lenient Alliant is but I doubt as much as SoFi.
I believe SoFi Money is $500 and SoFi Invest is $5,000 for same day availability. They are essentially floating you money since the money isn’t actually withdrawn from an external bank until days later. You could take the money and run but your credit and churning hustle will go poof.
FYI, this bank can be a real dick on transactions that can go wrong still.
They may not charge a fee, but if you have even two small innocent transfers that fail in like a year (think credit card payment attempt or fat finger an ACH), they will put you on “probation” making it almost impossible to use the account for the better part of a year, OR they’ll flat out kick you out!
Not saying there should be no penalty, but even if you have high volume transactions and $ and been a customer for years, they’ll put you on the shit list– you may get by without them charging you an overdraft fee once, but the reason they’re likely waiving it is the second time there’s a good chance they’ll just throw you out instead.
Pick your poison.
One time I ACHed money out from another bank and something went wrong but I had already transferred it out of Alliant so it left me with $-15000. They helped me fix it and no restrictions were put though. Maybe the guy helping me was just easy.
I had two malfunction ATM withdraw experience. Aliant issued provisional credit fast and got my money back. I try to keep my balance as low as possible, so I typically have 2 overdrafts a year. Alliant refunded the fees and did nothing to my account. I like to have it as my main account because I can do ACH to move $$$ to other accounts next business day if I initiate it before noon.
“I try to keep my balance as low as possible”, “I like to have it as my main account”
Those two things to not seem to work together.
Personally I will only consider using an account as my main if it can (for free) pull money from a linked savings account at the same bank to cover overdrafts AND that savings account has a decent interest rate. That way I can keep my checking super low without fear of incurring fees.
I agree. I been in there Restricted Hell for a failed pull.
Just because there isn’t fees doesn’t mean their isn’t any other repercussions!
I have slowed down using them because of the restrictions. Wish they would measure the penalty based on the % of failed overall transactions.
It’d be cool if they would let spouses use a login to manage the account too. It’s impossible for a husband and wife to manage an account with MFA on. Their reasoning? Security.
Wait, someone will stop screwing poor people? I guess there’s hope…
Ally also removed overdraft fee. But yeah, they are in a minority of lenders.
the exploitation of the poor is a time honored tradition throughout recorded history. The only thing lacking today is debtor’s prison. I’m sure if der fuehrer gets reelected he will bring it back. Use the convicts to construct the wall.
Lol you think this means they’ll “stop screwing poor people”? This just means people who bounce checks will get their account closed instead of being charged $35. Then they’ll get a mark on Chex, and no bank will ever let them open another checking account. Does that sound better than being charged $35? The real problem is that people with poor money management skills need to learn better money management skills. Overdrafts are not the proper way to manage money.