Posted by John Donovan :: July 12, 2007 @ 9:26 am

I was reading mobilemoneybanking.com e-mail and they mentioned this report called “Out of Balance: Consumers pay $17.5 billion per year in fees for abusive overdraft loans” written by the Center for Responsible Lending.

I am amazed at that level of fee income for the banks - $17.5 billion. The report goes into overdraft fees, and also mentions that the $17.5 billion in fees was for loans of only $15.8 billion.

Think about that one - the fees are actually greater than the total amount of loans.

Other interesting facts in this study:
• The average fee for overdraft is $34 (on a check or debit card payment of $27!)
• Abusive overdraft loan fees accounted for over 40% of bank and credit union fee income in 2006, up from 27% in 2004
• Some banks change the order of overdraft checks so that more checks are charged an overdraft fee (see the study for a better explanation – pages 6 and 7)

Enjoy the study!

John from Lending Club