<story><title>The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America</title><url>http://banksimple.com/blog/Banking/the-36-dollar-soda-overdrafting-in-america/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mcherm</author><text>I work for a US bank, &quot;ING Direct&quot;. On our &quot;checking&quot; account (electronic payments preferred), our policy for overdrafts works like this: if you overdraw your account, we do NOT charge you an overdraft fee. Instead, we automatically turn it into a loan at typical unsecured lending rates (11.25% today: prime plus 8%). As soon as you deposit enough money to go back to a positive balance, we go back to paying interest on your balance.&lt;p&gt;I hate feeling like an advertisement for my employer, but I just don&apos;t understand why ALL banks can&apos;t work this way!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pinko</author><text>I have no connection to ING Direct other than as a customer, but I love this feature and use it /all/ the time.&lt;p&gt;I just don&apos;t ever have to pay careful attention to my precise balance, since the interest on a day or two of being $50 &quot;overdrawn&quot; is trivial.  And every now and then when some huge auto-bill hits or a check I forgot about gets cashed, it simply clears instead of creating a multi-hour hassle for me to clear up.</text></comment>
<story><title>The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America</title><url>http://banksimple.com/blog/Banking/the-36-dollar-soda-overdrafting-in-america/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mcherm</author><text>I work for a US bank, &quot;ING Direct&quot;. On our &quot;checking&quot; account (electronic payments preferred), our policy for overdrafts works like this: if you overdraw your account, we do NOT charge you an overdraft fee. Instead, we automatically turn it into a loan at typical unsecured lending rates (11.25% today: prime plus 8%). As soon as you deposit enough money to go back to a positive balance, we go back to paying interest on your balance.&lt;p&gt;I hate feeling like an advertisement for my employer, but I just don&apos;t understand why ALL banks can&apos;t work this way!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adestefan</author><text>A lot of banks have this option, but you need to ask about it when you open your account. I decline it since I&apos;m well aware of my balance  and would rather not have the open line of credit sitting on my credit report.</text></comment>