[tdfx]

As a college student, I am assuming that you didn't have much money, but also likely had rather limited expenses. To the family with children that has $50 to their name, a rent payment, childcare expenses, etc, most of which they can barely afford already, an unexpected overdraft can be the trigger that sends them off a financial cliff.

Poor people often make very bad financial decisions. But so do rich and middle class people. The difference is that the poor people have no one to turn to for help. Exploiting that may not fit the statutory definition of robbery, but it meets it in every other way I can think of.

[Touche]

All true, but you can't regulate away bad decisions. By attempting to do so you just make the next scheme even more disgusting.

[maehwasu]

Challenge accepted. I am going to regulate this problem away. New proposed regulation:

1. Banks must make rejection of a charge, rather than overdrafting, the default.

2. When overdrafting is enabled, cap the fees at some amount (say, $5), and also cap the amount the account can be overdrafted at, say, $50.

Looks like a pretty disgusting scheme to me. /sarcasm

[Swizec]

Funnily, that's how it works in Europe. Or at least anywhere in Europe that I've had an account.

[logicchains]

You can't regulate away bad decisions, but you can regulate away the consequences (by shifting them onto the wider population). Not that I support this, as I believe it unfairly penalises people who make good decisions, but it's certainly possible.