Citi Removes Overdraft, Returned Item Fees on Retail Banking Accounts

Citi has removed overdraft, overdraft protection transfer and returned item fees from Citi Retail Banking consumer deposit accounts, with the changes having gone into effect Sunday (June 19), according to a company update.

Citi said this makes it the only top five U.S. bank, based on assets, to do away with the fees for Citi Retail Banking consumer deposit accounts. The bank added that this change shows how it wants to increase financial inclusion and boost economic progress for the underserved.

The bank also said it plans to add new features to go along with this. It will add overdraft protection services, including a safety check to transfer available funds from a linked account, along with common sense protection measures, in which Citi won’t allow ATM or point-of-sale debit transactions when the funds aren’t available.

Citi is also offering 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.

There’s been more of a push against overdraft fees in recent months, with critics saying they’re primarily ways for banks to fatten their own pay-loads and keep things unequal for lower-income bank customers.

Last month, PYMNTS wrote that Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that banks should just end the fees entirely. She singled out J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and called him the “star of the overdraft show,” due to the billions the bank has made from the fees over the years.

See also: Sen. Warren Calls on Big Banks to End Overdraft Fees

In letters to Dimon and two other CEOs — Wells Fargo’s Charlie Scharf and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America — Warren said they should follow the ways other banks have been going and eliminate the fees.

Warren said this would go a long way toward “protecting consumers.”