Trapping Customers With Overdraft Fees Without Warning

Bank of America automatically enrolls checking account customers in overdraft programs.  Customers often do not realize they have overdrawn their accounts until they receive a letter disclosing the fee. Bank of America uses software that automatically pays overdrafts without alerting the customer or conducting an assessment of a customer's ability to repay the overdraft loan . Strunk and Associates, the leading vendor of overdraft lending software, promises that banks that use its software will "achieve a fee income increase of up to 400% within four months."

"Banks now place a significant number of customers into a high-cost overdraft program that automatically honors overdrafts--encourages them in fact--and generates billions of dollars in fee revenues for the banks in the process." -Center for Responsible Lending .