CRL and a cross-section of civil rights, labor, consumer, housing, community, business, and sustainable and responsible investor groups sent a joint letter to the FDIC expressing support for bringing attention to abusive overdraft practices. The groups support the agency's common-sense recommendations for actions banks should take to treat their customers more fairly while offering recommendations for how the FDIC could further address its banks' deceptive practices.
Specifically, the groups support the FDIC for recognizing that charging a customer more than six overdraft fees within a twelve-month period is excessive. At the same time, the groups urge the FDIC to explicitly tell banks:
- They should provide every customer who wants overdraft coverage the lowest cost overdraft option the customer qualifies for – allowing many customers to avoid any high overdraft fees at all; and
- They should not, under any circumstances, charge more than six overdraft fees within a twelve-month period.
A longer comment letter by CRL and other consumer groups, can be found at http://www.responsiblelending.org/overdraft-loans/policy-legislation/re….