Terms and Conditions Overdraft Addendum
Understanding and Avoiding Overdraft and Nonsufficient Funds (NSF) Fees
Generally
This Addendum is part of the Terms and Conditions of Your Account. The information in this Addendum is being provided to help you understand what happens if your account is overdrawn. Understanding the concepts of overdrafts and nonsufficient funds (NSF) is important and can help you avoid being assessed fees or charges. This section also provides contractual terms relating to overdrafts and Returned Items/NSF transactions.
An overdrawn account will typically result in you being charged an overdraft fee or a NSF fee. Generally, an overdraft occurs when there is not enough money in your account to pay for a transaction, but we pay (or cover) the transaction anyway. A Returned Item/NSF transaction is slightly different. In a Returned Item/NSF transaction, we do not cover the transaction. Instead,
the transaction is rejected and the item or requested payment is returned. In either situation, we may charge you a fee.
Determining Your Account Balance
We use your account’s actual balance (sometimes called ledger balance) at the end of the business day to determine whether your account is overdrawn, that is, whether there is enough money in your account to pay for a transaction.
Your account’s actual balance only includes transactions that have settled up to that point in time, that is, transactions (deposits and payments) that have posted to your account. At the end of the business day we post credits (deposits) first, if your account has such credits. The actual balance does not include outstanding transactions (such as checks that have not yet cleared and electronic transactions that have been authorized but which are still pending). The balance on your periodic statement is the actual balance (‘ledger balance’) for your account as of the statement date.
In addition, when calculating your actual balance, any holds placed on deposits that have not yet cleared are also subtracted from the actual balance.
Overdrafts
You understand that we may, at our discretion, honor withdrawal requests that overdraw your account. However, the fact that we may honor withdrawal requests that overdraw the account balance does not obligate us to do so later. Therefore, you cannot rely on us to pay overdrafts on your account regardless of how frequently or under what circumstances we have paid overdrafts on your account in the past. We can change our practice of paying or not paying discretionary overdrafts on your account without notice to you. You can ask us if we have other account services that might be available to you where we commit to paying overdrafts under certain circumstances, such as an overdraft protection line-of-credit or a plan to sweep funds from another account you have with us. You agree that we may charge fees for overdrafts. We may use subsequent deposits, including direct deposits of Social Security or other government benefits, to cover such overdrafts and overdraft fees. For consumer accounts, we will not charge fees for overdrafts caused by Automated-Teller-Machine (ATM) withdrawals or one-time debit card transactions.
Returned Item/Nonsufficient Funds (NSF) Fees (sometimes referred to as ‘Insufficient’ Funds)
If an item drafted by you (such as a check) or a transaction you set up (such as a preauthorized transfer) is presented for payment in an amount that is more than the amount of money in your account, and we decide not to pay the item or transaction, you agree that we can charge you a Returned Item/NSF fee for returning the payment. Be aware that such an item or transaction may be presented multiple times and that we do not monitor or control the number of times an item or transaction is presented for payment. This type of multiple presentment can trigger the assessment of multiple Returned Item/NSF fees by us if the payment is presented more than once. You agree that we may charge you a Returned Item/NSF fee each time a payment is presented if the amount of money in your account is not sufficient to cover the payment, regardless of the number of times the payment is presented. For example, if a preauthorized transfer or check is presented for payment and we reject and return the payment due to nonsufficient funds in your account, and the item is subsequently represented for payment, and rejected and returned due to nonsufficient funds, we may charge a Returned Item/NSF Fee for both the original presentment and each re-presentment thereafter.
Payment Types
Some, but not necessarily all, of the ways you can access the funds in your account include debit card transactions, automated clearing house (ACH) transactions, check transactions, and cash withdrawals. All these payment types can use different processing systems and some may take more or less time to post. This information is important for a number of reasons. For example, keeping track of the checks you write and the timing of the preauthorized payments you set up will help you to know what other transactions might still post against your account. For information about how and when we process these different payment types, see the “Payment order of items” subsection below.
Balance Information
Keeping track of your balance is important. You can review your balance in a number of ways including reviewing your periodic statement, reviewing your balance online, accessing your account information by phone or other mobile device, or by visiting one of our locations.
Funds Availability
Knowing when funds you deposit will be made available for withdrawal is another important concept that can help you avoid being assessed fees or charges. Please see our Funds Availability Policy Disclosure for information on when different types of deposits will be made available for withdrawal. For those accounts to which our funds availability policy disclosure does not apply, you can ask us when you make a deposit when those funds will be available for withdrawal. An item may be returned after the funds from the deposit of that item are made available for withdrawal. In that case, we will reverse the credit of the item. We may determine the amount of available funds in your account for the purpose of deciding whether to return an item for nonsufficient funds at any time between the times we receive the item and when we return the item or send a notice in lieu of return. We need only make one determination, but if we choose to make a subsequent determination, the account balance at the subsequent time will determine whether there are sufficient available funds.
A Temporary Debit Authorization Hold Affects Your Account Balance
On debit card purchases, merchants may request a temporary hold on your account for a specified sum of money when the merchant does not know the exact amount of the purchase at the time the card is authorized. The amount of the temporary hold may be more than the actual amount of your purchase. Some common transactions where this occurs involve purchases of gasoline, hotel rooms, or meals at restaurants. When this happens, our processing system cannot determine that the amount of the hold exceeds the actual amount of your purchase. This temporary hold, and the amount charged to your account, will eventually be adjusted to the actual amount of your purchase, but it could be three calendar days, or even longer in some cases, before the adjustment is made. Until the adjustment is made, the amount of funds in your account available for other transactions will be reduced by the amount of the temporary hold. If another transaction is presented for payment in an amount greater than the funds left after the deduction of the temporary hold amount, you may be charged an NSF or overdraft fee according to our NSF or overdraft fee policy. You may be charged the fee even if you would have had sufficient funds in your account if the amount of the hold had been equal to the amount of your purchase.
Payment Order of Items
The order in which items are paid is important if there is not enough money in your account to pay all of the items that are presented. The payment order can affect the number of items
overdrawn or returned unpaid and the amount of the fees you may have to pay. Items presented for payment may not be processed in the same order as they were received and that order may affect the total fees assessed to your account. To assist you in managing your account, we are providing you with the following information regarding how we process those items.
Our policy is to process automatic internal payments and service charges including prior days NSF/Returned Item fees first, by dollar amount – smallest to largest on the day they are processed. We process teller-initiated transactions, such as cashed checks and in-person withdrawals second, by dollar amount – smallest to largest on the business day they are processed. Third, we process debit card initiated transactions, including ATM and Point of Sale transactions by dollar amount – smallest to largest on the effective date of the item. We process customer initiated electronic transfers from online banking, mobile banking or electronic person-to-person payments fourth, by dollar amount – smallest to largest on the day they are processed. We process Electronic Bill payment and Pre-Authorized payment (ACH) transactions (including checks converted by merchant to ACH without a check number) fifth, by dollar amount – smallest to largest on the day they are processed. Finally, we pay checks and other paper items by dollar amount – smallest to largest — on the business day they are processed.
We will not charge you a fee for paying an overdraft of an ATM or one-time debit card transaction if this is a consumer account.
We encourage you to make careful records and practice good account management. This will help you to avoid writing checks or conducting transactions without sufficient funds and potentially incurring the resulting fees.