Citi To Eliminate Overdraft Fees & More Starting Summer 2022

Citi will become one of the only top major banks in the U.S. to eliminate overdraft fees come this summer. Overdraft fees have caused a lot of economic hardship for consumers as they struggle through the pandemic, and Citi is taking additional steps to eliminate these pesky fees through a variety of methods.

Eliminating Fees

Here are the fees Citi is eliminating, starting this summer:

• Overdraft Fees — When you have a bank account and withdraw more than the available funds in that bank account, a bank charges you an overdraft fee. Sometimes the bank will outright deny the transaction, but many times, if you have a history of regular deposits, a bank will let the transaction go through (and let your account go into the negative), but charge an overdraft fee as part of the process.
• Returned Item Fees — If you have a check that bounces due to an insufficient set of funds, a returned item fee is charged anytime the transaction cannot be processed.
• Overdraft Protection Fees — If a bank needs to cover your overdraft by withdrawing funds from other linked accounts or another source, not only will the bank charge an overdraft fee, but they also can charge a fee for them allowing the transaction to complete, even if you’re using other available funds in another account.

Obviously, if you need to utilize any one of these occurrences the fees can really add up, and there are many consumers that can easily spiral into a pattern of debt with regular overdraft issues. Of course, a regular or a pattern of occurrences can warrant Citi closing your account, but even 1 fee can set a consumer back significantly. Thanks to the fees getting eliminated, Citi is hoping to better serve customers.

Citi also offers a number of services to help customers navigate through overdraft issues:

• Users can enroll in Safety Check, where funds from a linked savings account can be used to cover any overdraft transactions.
• If you have a line of credit, Citi’s Checking Plus account will withdraw funds from the credit line to cover any amount not in the checking account.
• By enrolling in an Access Account Package, customers can experience a fee-free checking account, further reducing the amount they spend each month in fees.

Final Thoughts

It’s great to see Citi step up and help consumers deal with unfortunate financial mistakes. By removing fees, customers can quickly rectify issues without having to worry about further going into debt or not being able to recover as quickly. It’s unusual for a bank to make a customer-friendly move such as this, but Citi appears to be leading the way of the big banks in the U.S.