[ipsento606]

In the US this always seems to be called "overdraft protection", as in "do you want overdraft protection on your account?"

I can never remember if overdraft protection means "we won't let your account overdraft", or "we will let your account overdraft"

It is an incredibly confusing name to me

I could look up the answer now, but I know I will just forget it again. I must have looked it up and then forgotten at least 10 separate times over the years

[SoftTalker]

Normally means that if your checking accout balance hits zero, they will pull from your savings account rather than returning a check presented for payment. They may (probably will) still charge you a fee when this happens, but it might be less than an overdraft.

Or, it might be a case where they grant you a short-term personal loan to cover the overdraft (up to some limit) rather than return checks. Again there will be fees and interest on this.

In either case, since they are not rejecting payments, you avoid getting hit with fees from whomever you wrote the check to. So your only fees/penalties are paid to the bank.

Of course the best answer is just keep better track of your checking account balance.

[fragmede]

Of course, the funny part about that is that they charge you to check your balance at the ATM. It's almost as if they don't want you to and have to pay their fee.

Which of course is about as odorous fee as possible. You don't have enough money, so we're going to charge you more money?

[BizarroLand]

Overdraft protection means that the bank will cover any overdrafts that you make, but then they will charge you a fee on top of it.