Yet Another Reason to Stop Using Your Debit Card

Banks have once again raised fees for overdrafts (writing a check for more than the balance of your bank account). These fees are becoming a critical part of how banks make money, so you'll need to show extra caution now.

So what does this have to do with your debit card? A debit card is just another way to use an electronic check. The industry is currently engaging in what many believe to be an unethical practice: letting your check clear which gives you a negative balance AND assesses you an overdraft fee.

For example, let's take this bank statement with a $12.46 starting balance:

01/15/2008 Beginning Balance $12.46
01/17/2008 Debit Card Use $14.00
01/17/2008 Overdraft Fee $35.00
01/17/2008 Debit Card Use $4.60
01/17/2008 Overdraft Fee $35.00
01/17/2008 Debit Card Use $5.75
01/17/2008 Overdraft Fee $35.00

Ending Balance: -$116.89

For just a few small purchases on your debit card, the bank was seeing each one as a check and sticking you with more than $100 in fees in one day!

How to avoid this:

1) Use credit cards
If you pay off your balance every month, use a credit card. Since a debit card often gets accepted, your credit card will get declined if something is wrong (over the limit, etc).

2) Get overdraft protection
Banks sometimes offer this protection for free -- it is simply a line of credit that gets tapped if you overdraw. The interest you pay on this is likely to be much lower than the overdraft fee.

3) Don't use banks that allow debit card purchases to clear when you have a negative balance
Drop them so that this unethical industry practice can end.