NEW YORK - As lawmakers prepare to implement sweeping credit card reforms, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are moving to overhaul overdraft fees and practices that have been criticized industrywide as excessive and harmful to consumers.
Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it will cap the fees it charges customers for overdrawing their accounts, backpedaling on the hikes the company imposed just this year. Starting Oct. 19, Bank of America no longer will charge overdraft fees when a customer’s account is overdrawn by less than $10 in one day.
A $35 fee will still be levied if the account isn’t brought into balance within five days.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank also will limit to four the number of times an overdraft fee can be charged on an account per day. Just this year, the bank had raised that cap from five to 10. It also raised the fee this year for the first overdraft in a 12-month period to $35 from $25 , a hike that still stands.
Enrollment in the bank’s overdraft program is currently automatic for new customers, and opting out is possible only in “very limited” circumstances, said Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman. But now customers will be able opt out, meaning that transactions will be denied at the register if customers don’t have enough money in their accounts to cover a purchase.
Pace said the company didn’t have an estimate …
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