The American Bankers Association released yesterday the results of a survey that said 91 percent of people 55 and older have not paid overdraft fees in the past year.
While the ABA said the survey question was aimed at countering claims by the Center for Responsible Lending that overdraft fees were hurting seniors, the results point to something else:
Overdrawing a checking account is simply not acceptable to older generations of Americans.
Yet in this day and age of easy credit and the many banks that market overdraft protection products, it seems to have become an acceptable practice by my generation — Generation X — and younger ones.
Write a check for more than your account can cover, pay the fee and move on.
Seems to me there’s something wrong with that kind of thinking.
One Comment
Well, I am a member of Gen X too and do NOT think it’s okay to overdraw your checking account. Last year, I was livid with one of my vendors, who I pay online, when they took out the amount of my payment TWICE and overdrafted my account. So, at 35, I paid overdraft fees last year, but hadn’t paid them before that since I was 18. And to be honest, I thought I had over draft protection tied to that account. Surprise! I never sent the paperwork in. Luckily my bank waived the overdraft fees when I appealed to my vendor. (Who stilled claimed they were not at fault and that I had intentionally paid them twice!) I still had to pay fees to the vendor for reversing the payment to them. Not being responsible and paying these fees is a gigantic waste of money!!!