Vent: Just realized I've been paying for overdraft protection for 6 years and never once used it

I was going through my bank statements from like 2018 to now because I'm trying to cut my monthly bills down. Saw this line item for "Overdraft Protection Fee" at $4 a month. Every single month, like clockwork. That's like $288 over the years. I thought it was some kind of insurance that would stop me from bouncing checks or something. Nope. Called the bank today and they told me it just links my savings to my checking. I never set that up. I don't even have savings. So I'm paying for a service that does nothing. The guy on the phone was super polite about it but I felt like a total idiot. Has anyone else found some random bank fee they just never questioned?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_simon12h ago

Man you just described my exact situation. I found the same thing last year when I was refinancing my car and had to dig through old statements. "Overdraft Protection Fee" at like $5 a month for like 8 years. I called and they told me the same thing about linking accounts. But get this - I actually have a savings account with like $200 in it from like 2016. So I was paying for a service that would transfer money from my savings to my checking if I overdrafted. But my savings only had $200 in it and my overdrafts were always like $50 or $100. So the bank was basically taking my $5 a month and never doing anything because my savings never got low enough to trigger it. I asked the guy why they kept charging me and he said "it's an automatic service" like that makes it okay. The whole thing is a scam designed for people who don't read the fine print.

wadem898h ago

Oh man, I had something similar with a "Paper Statement Fee" I caught on my credit card last year. It was $2.50 a month for like three years, over $90 total, and I only noticed because my son spilled juice on my phone and I had to actually log into the website. I was paying for them to mail me a paper bill I never got because I moved twice without updating my address. So I was paying for a service that was literally sending my info to a stranger's house.