College Students Pay $828 Million Checking Overdraft Fees

Going off to college usually entails more than just raising the amount of responsibility students have to assume for their own education. For many, if not most college students, it’s also their introduction to the world of personal finance, and that means a checking account, a credit/debit card or both.

To help with the transition to taking charge of their finances, many universities have formed relationships with banking institutions to offer university-affiliated checking accounts. Some schools even have branch offices on campus to make banking more convenient for students.

But not always cheaper. According to U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) data analyzed by NerdWallet, Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 incur more overdrafts than any other age group: an average of 2.2 per person annually. Along with those overdrafts come overdraft fees, and regardless of the relationship between a financial institution and the school, those fees are typically no lower than the national median of $35 per overdraft. As a group, 18 to 25 year olds pay about $828 million every year in overdraft fees.

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It’s not too hard to figure out why banks want to establish a relationship with a university and the thousands of new potential customers that arrive on campuses every fall. Universities, in addition to providing a convenient service to students, also may receive a payment from the bank. At the University of California, Berkeley, for example, the school signed a deal with Bank of the West in 2015 making the bank the university’s official banking partner. The bank agreed to pay $17 million over 10 years for the privilege.

Berkeley students who write checks for more than their account balances incur a $26 overdraft fee on the first overdraft and $35 from then on. A local credit union, USE Credit Union, charges an overdraft fee of $27 on every naughty check, according to NerdWallet.

At Ohio State University, the university-affiliated Huntington Bank charges $23 for the first overdraft and $37.50 for every future occurrence. For students willing to bank off campus, KeyBank charges no overdraft fee at all. Students at the University of Washington can also choose the affiliated U.S. Bank with an overdraft fee of $36 or KeyBank, which charges no fee.

NerdWallet surveyed 20 large universities and reports on which banks are affiliated with which university, whether there is an on-campus branch, and where students might get a checking account with a lower overdraft fee.

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And for those students who don’t want to fool with checks, NerdWallet suggests two mobile banking options, Capital One 360 and Simple. See NerdWallet’s full article, including its survey methodology.