Overdraft Protection saves you money
Maybe this has happened to you: You write a check, but you don’t have enough funds in your account to cover it and it bounces, or you use your debit card and the transaction is rejected. Overdrawing your checking account is embarrassing and costly, but it doesn’t have to be; there are steps you can take to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.
The most obvious way to avoid the embarrassment and expense of an overdrawn account is to make sure you always have sufficient funds in your account. But accidents – and emergencies – happen. Our Overdraft Protection plan is a way to link your Oregon State Credit Union checking account to a back-up source of funds, like a savings account.
Doing nothing is expensive
If you open a checking account and do nothing about overdraft protection, it can get expensive. Let’s say you write a check that’s $10 more than you have in your account. The first time the store presents the check for payment, you’ll have to pay an overdraft fee* of $30. Sometimes stores present the check more than once, triggering the $30 fee each time. If the store presents your check for payment three times, that’s $90 in fees to you, plus whatever fee the store might impose on you. Ouch!
A better way
A better way to protect your account is to enroll in Overdraft Protection. This service allows you to designate a backup account to cover your overdrafts and avoid the $30 fee.
You add Overdraft Protection at one of our branches or by calling our Member Service Center at 800-732-0173.
Here's how it works: You select a back-up account for your Overdraft Protection. It could be your Oregon State Credit Union savings account, second checking account, Visa® credit card, money market account or Personal Line of Credit. If you overdraw your account, we will transfer funds from your back-up account to cover the transaction and avoid the $30 fee.
Enrolling in Overdraft Protection is free. Each time you overdraw your account, there may be a small transfer fee of up to $4, depending on your Member Merits category. Members in the Essential category pay $4, in the Enhanced category they pay $3 and in the Premier category there is no fee.
When selecting your back-up account, be aware that transfers from your Basic Savings Account (BSA) or money market account are limited to six per month. After that, you are no longer covered by Overdraft Protection and will incur the $30 overdraft fee. Transfers from lines of credit or credit cards are unlimited as long as there are funds in those accounts, but they begin to accrue interest the day of the transfer.
Text alerts
One way to help avoid overdrawing your account is to sign up for a low balance text alert. A text alert can warn you when your
account balance falls below an amount that you designate. To receive low balance text alerts, you need to sign up for online banking and activate the text banking feature. You can enable the text alert from within your online banking settings.
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