The Chase Overdraft Fee and How to Get it Refunded
This article is for anyone wondering how the Chase overdraft fee works and how to get around it. If you have a Chase bank account and accidentally bounced your account, you’ll be happy to know that there are things you can do to avoid that pesky Chase overdraft fee and get your overdraft fees refunded.
Depending on your situation and transactions, you have a few options to get your Chase overdraft fee waived.
Continue reading to learn about the Chase overdraft refund policy and see what you can do to have Chase remove your overdraft fee.
What Is an Overdraft Fee?
In simple terms, an overdraft fee is a bank fee that banks charge to your account when you try to make a purchase without having enough funds.
Types of Overdraft Fees
There are two different types of Chase overdraft fees that charge you based on separate scenarios. The types include:
Return Items Fee
Insufficient Funds fee
The return items overdraft fee occurs when you attempt a transaction without having enough money in your account; thus, your card gets declined, and you cannot complete the purchase.
The insufficient fund fee is similar to the return items fee, except Chase will step in and cover the items’ cost for you, and your card will not decline. For instance, if you want to buy lunch for $15, but your account only has $3 in it, your bank will cover you, so you can still purchase the lunch. The catch is, though, that you will now owe the bank a hefty fee for bouncing.
How Much Is the Overdraft Fee?
Chase Bank charges $34 every time you overdraft your account (for each item), which is a similar overdraft fee compared to other well-known banks like US Bank or PNC.
Most well-known banks charge an average fee of $30 for insufficient funds (formally known as the NSF fee) and bounced checks.
You can learn more about the NSF fee meaning, NSF return fees, and bounced check legal actions in our other related posts.
Below is a comparison table that shows the exact cost of overdraft fees for other banks.
| Bank | Cost |
|---|---|
| Chase Overdraft Fee | $34 |
| Bank of America Overdraft Fee | $35 |
| US Bank Overdraft Fee | $36 |
| TD Bank Overdraft Fee | $35 |
| PNC Overdraft Fee | $36 |
| Wells Fargo Overdraft Fee | $35 |
When Will I Be Charged an Overdraft Fee
Chase will charge you an overdraft fee anytime your Chase checking account goes into the negatives. More specifically, Chase charges a fee when you attempt to purchase something, and you don’t have enough money in your account to cover this cost. This can happen, for example, when you try buying something with your Chase checking account card or with a check.
However, there are exceptions to the Chase overdraft fee, where an overdraft fee will not be charged due to particular circumstances. These circumstances include:
If it is a recurring debit transaction
If the item you’re purchasing is less than $5, and if your account balance is only overdrawn by $5 at the end of the day. (You will essentially be charged when your account is overdrawn by more than $5)
If you’re a Chase Sapphire or Chase Private Client Checking member, the Chase overdraft fee will be waived when the transaction item is presented or when a withdrawal request is made within four or fewer days of the current statement period.
How to Get Your Chase Overdraft Fee Waived
You can get a refund on your Chase overdraft fee by trying out these two things.
Request a Chase overdraft fee waiver. To get your Chase overdraft fee waived, you can contact a Chase customer service representative and politely ask for an overdraft fee waiver. Chase is known to allow up to three overdraft waivers per person each year (which adds up to $102). If they do not process your overdraft waiver automatically, be sure to be persistent and continue contacting them until they do. It also won’t hurt to mention that you’re a loyal Chase Bank customer.
Write to Your Local Chase Bank Manager. If you’ve already called the Chase customer service line and weren’t able to get your overdraft fee waived, write a letter to your local Chase Bank manager. Mention your name, account details, and try to explain your scenario respectfully. Once again, it will be helpful to mention your loyalty to Chase and that you’ve deposited more money into your account following your overdraft.
You can also use these methods to get your overdraft fees refunded when using banks other than Chase, like Bank of America, US Bank, TD Bank, PNC, and Wells Fargo.
How to Avoid Chase Overdraft Fees
To prevent your bank account from bouncing and getting charged, you need to understand how the fee works and know the overdraft fee cut-off time.
How Long Do You Have Until You Will Be Charged an Overdraft Fee?
You can avoid the Chase overdraft fee if you can transfer enough money into your bank account to cover your over-drafting item by the end of the day. Note that the end of the day does not mean midnight.
You must have the money transferred into your account before:
Your local Chase branch closes
11 pm Eastern time when transferring via the Zelle App or Chase Mobile app
11 pm Eastern time when using an ATM
You can also avoid getting a Chase overdraft fee by setting alerts on your devices to send you notifications each time your account is getting low. You can customize the alerts to notify you when your account has surpassed a specific limit.
Chase Overdraft Protection
Another way to avoid Chase overdraft fees is to prevent them from happening with overdraft protection services.
What is Overdraft Protection?
Chase offers multiple overdraft protection services that can help you stay on top of your checking account balances and avoid overdraft fees from ever occurring.
| Standard Overdraft Practice | Overdraft Protection | Overdraft Protection | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of Service | Standard service provided for nearly all Chase checking accounts | Addon service that lets you link your checking + saving accounts | Addon service that customizes how Chase should handle your debit card transactions |
| Coverage | Covers Automatic Recurring Payments (Ex. phone bill, monthly memberships) | All types of transactions (including purchases with debit cards) | All daily-life transactions (Ex. gas, groceries, eating out) |
| Cost | $34 per item if paid, or $34 for an item returned | No overdraft fees, other fees could occur. | $34 per item if paid |
How Does Chase Overdraft Protection Work?
You will be able to link your checking account to your savings account so that you will have a backup in case your checking ever runs out of funds. Once your accounts are linked, Chase will keep you covered as long as your savings account has enough funds to cover your needs. Any daily transactions with your debit card will be protected if your checking account runs to $0.
Important Note: If both your checking and savings accounts run to zero and you overdraft, your accounts will not have coverage from Chase overdraft protection services. In other words, you will be charged with an overdraft fee if your savings account does not have enough money in it.
Chase Overdraft Protection Fees
If you opt into Chase’s overdraft protection system, you will not have any extra fees for the money transfers. There is only a $5 fee if you withdraw money from your savings account more than five times (formally known as the Excess Activity Fee).
