Chase, Bank of America Tweak Overdraft Policies

After squawking by legislators, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are changing how they charge overdraft fees, the Wall Street Journal reports. BofA now won’t charge customers if they overdraw their accounts by under $10 in one day; at Chase, it’s $5 or less. Both are also reducing the number of times daily customers can be charged an overdraft fee—Chase from six to three, Bank of America from 10 to four.

Both banks denied that political pressure was behind the move. “We are doing this because we have customers under stress and we can help a lot of them right now,” said a Bank of America rep. Chase’s spin: “We realize that customers have real concerns about the fees they have incurred and we want to take a thoughtful approach to ways to help them.”
(More overdraft fee stories.)