Citibank’s Overdraft Fee Elimination Has Officially Gone Into Effect

Citibank’s new updated policy that eliminates overdraft fees has officially gone into effect.

Earlier this year, the company announced that it’d stop charging overdraft fees, returned item fees, and overdraft protection fees. Citi is now the only top-five U.S. bank to completely eliminate these fees on Citi Retail Banking consumer deposit accounts.

This change is representative of the bank’s ongoing commitment to increase financial inclusions and advance economic progress, including the launch of measures to help minimize consumer overdrafts fees more than twenty years ago.

Citibank’s new policy change comes as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has grown increasingly critical of what it called “abusive overdraft fees” in a report released earlier this year.

“This latest enhancement is a significant step for Citi as a leader in the banking industry offering the most consumer-friendly overdraft practices,” Gonzalo Luchetti, Citi CEO of U.S. personal banking, said. “We are continuously looking for ways to utilize our industry-leading capabilities to make the financial system easier and more equitable for communities with little or no financial buffer.”

To complement this new enhancement, Citi continues to offer a robust suite of overdraft protection services for its consumers, including Overdraft Protection Services, Common Sense Protection Measures, and Access Account Package.

Within the Overdraft Protection Services, Citi offers the services to cover negative balance transactions, such as Safety Check – which will allow customers to transfer available funds from a linked Citibank savings account to cover overdraft fees and Checking Plus – a line of credit that automatically transfers funds from your credit line to your checking account to cover your overdraft fees.

Citi also offers an “Access Account Package,” a checkless account package with low or avoidable monthly charges. That will reportedly offer customers a transparent way to add more finance protection. Additionally, low balance alerts can tell consumers when their funds are getting low.

This enhancement is the latest example of how Citi continues to leverage its core business capabilities to advance its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) priorities and help address many of society’s toughest challenges. It also complements many of its firm-wide Action for Racial Equity efforts in the U.S. that aim to expand banking and credit in communities of color, such as Citi® ATM Community Network, which provides surcharge-free access to Citibank ATMs for customers of participating minority-owned banks, community banks, and community development credit unions.