How To Get Overdraft Fees Waived

There’s no doubt overdraft fees are costly. What’s worse, they generally hit you right when you don’t have a whole lot of money on hand to pay them.

It goes without saying that the best way to avoid being hit with an overdraft fee is to simply keep a positive balance in your account in the first place. However, mistakes happen and sometimes a check you have forgotten about comes through at an inopportune time, or you come up short on an automatic payment.

So what do you do when you discover that a check has bounced and you have been hit with an overdraft fee? Is it too late to repair the damage at that point?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is usually, “Yes, it is too late to repair the damage.” Banks have been known to waive fees in order to keep customers happy from time to time, but they generally don’t waive overdraft fees except in very rare circumstances.

That said, if you are willing to beg, there are certain mitigating circumstances which could help you make a case for yourself. Here’s how to get overdraft fees waived when you just can’t afford another hit to your account.

Try to Prevent the Overdraft

First, how big of an overdraft was it, and were you making a good faith effort to cover the check? If you were $10 short on an $800 check, that’s a bit different than if you were $800 short and simply writing bad checks on an overdrawn account (intentionally writing bad checks is illegal, by the way, and can land you in court or even jail).

If, for example, you had made a deposit that day to cover the check, but it hadn’t cleared yet, you can at least prove that you tried to cover the check. In this instance, a bank might look favorably on a request to waive a bounced check fee.

Don’t Overdraw Regularly

If this is your first offense, you stand a better chance of getting your overdraft fee waived than you would if you have been going around bouncing checks right and left. Ask your bank if you can sign up for overdraft protection while you are at it and they might waive the fee as a courtesy.

Most banks spend a lot of money each year on customer retention, so if you can show them you are a responsible account holder, they would probably rather not see you close the account and move on.