When your available balance isn't enough to pay for an item and the bank elects to pay it anyway, that's an overdraft. And you may be charged a $29 fee for each overdraft. We won't charge you more than one overdraft fee per day, per account. To learn more about our fees, read the Account Service and Fee Schedule (Opens in new window) .
In some cases, we may decline or return an item unpaid so you don't have an overdraft. You won't pay an overdraft fee, but the merchant or biller might still charge you fees. To determine whether we pay an overdraft item or return it, we look at your overdraft setting and other things like your account history, your deposits and the transaction amount.
When you don't have enough available balance, we'll decline one-time debit card purchases, ATM withdrawals and Zelle® transactions. For more information, read the Overdraft Policy in the Depository Agreement and Disclosures (Opens in new window) .
These features are automatically included on any account with Standard Overdraft.
At the end of the business day, we process your transactions. If your account is overdrawn by $50 or less, we won't charge an overdraft fee. And we won't charge an overdraft fee for any transaction of $5 or less.
We'll refund an overdraft fee charged to your account if we receive a qualifying deposit into the account within a window of time after the overdraft item posts to your account. The qualifying deposit must be received before the applicable deposit cutoff time on the business day following the posting of the overdraft item. It must be enough to bring your account's available balance to at least negative $50 after all items, not including the overdraft fee, have processed at the end of the business day following the posting date of the overdraft item. Only available funds count toward a qualifying deposit. To learn more, read our overdraft FAQ.
With this setting, we generally decline or return most types of transactions unpaid when your available balance isn't enough to pay for them. Our overdraft fees don't apply, but the merchant or biller might still charge you fees.
You can change your account's overdraft setting to Auto-Decline any time from your account summary page. It may take up to two business days to process.
These accounts are automatically set to Auto-Decline and are ineligible for Standard Overdraft:
You can also choose to enroll an eligible USAA Bank checking, savings or credit card account to help cover transactions in your USAA Bank checking or savings account. If you use a credit card as the protecting account, the transfers are treated as cash advances and are subject to fees and finance charges disclosed in your credit card agreement. Set up overdraft protection.
Text or email notifications can let you know when your balance falls below where you want it to be. They can also let you know when you have deposits, withdrawals, funds on hold or an overdrawn balance. Set up account alerts.
Your available balance includes all the money in your account you can use for things like making payments or authorizing transactions.
But some items may not count as part of your available balance, such as:
You can find your available balance on your account summary page on usaa.com and the USAA Mobile App.
It's the order we use to add deposits to your account and subtract withdrawals, transfers and payments from it during processing at the end of the business day. And it can affect your available balance.
For more information on available balance and posting order, read the Depository Agreement and Disclosures (Opens in new window) .
There are two overdraft setting options.
With the Standard Overdraft setting: We may elect to pay transactions, even when you don't have enough available balance to cover them. This might include bills, checks and certain payments like your mortgage.
This could save you from merchant fees related to things like late payments and returned checks. Standard Overdraft comes with the USAA Overdraft Fee Cushion to help you avoid overdraft fees. It also comes with the USAA Overdraft Fee Refund Window to help get them refunded. To learn more, read about the USAA Overdraft Fee Refund Window (Opens in new window) .
With the Auto-Decline setting: If your account doesn't have enough available balance, we'll generally decline or return most transactions unpaid. You don't have to worry about overdraft fees. To learn more, read our overdraft policy (Opens in new window) .
How does overdraft protection work with Standard Overdraft?Let's say you enrolled your checking account in overdraft protection and linked a USAA Bank checking or savings account as your protecting account. This means available funds from the protecting account automatically transfer to your account to help cover your transactions.
But what if you don't have enough available funds in your protecting account to help cover your transactions and your checking account is set to Standard Overdraft? We may choose to pay the transactions, at our discretion, causing an overdraft. This may result in overdraft fees.
Let's say you enrolled your checking account in overdraft protection and linked a USAA Bank credit card as your protecting account. Then your checking account isn't eligible for Standard Overdraft. It's automatically set to our Auto-Decline setting.
This means your checking account transactions could be returned unpaid if there isn't enough available credit on your protecting account.
How does the USAA Overdraft Fee Refund Window work?We'll provide a refund of an overdraft fee charged to your account if we receive a qualifying deposit to your account.
A qualifying deposit could include a funds transfer, Zelle® deposit or deposit of other available funds. It must also meet these requirements:
Timing of deposit: We must receive the deposit before the cutoff time on the business day following the posting date of the overdraft item.
For example, if an overdraft item posts to your account on Monday, we must receive the deposit before 9 p.m. on Tuesday or earlier on Tuesday depending on which deposit method you use.
For most business days, the cutoff times are as follows:
For more information, review the Funds Availability Policy section of the Depository Agreement and Disclosures.
Amount of deposit: The deposit must be enough to bring the account's available balance to at least negative $50, not including the overdraft fee subject to refund.
In other words, your account's available balance must be overdrawn by $50 or less after all items are processed at the end of the business day following the posting date of the overdraft item. This doesn't include the overdraft fee, which is subject to a refund.
There may be items that affect your available balance that don't appear on the USAA Mobile App or usaa.com until after processing at the end of the business day. You'll need to keep track of checks you've written or payments you've authorized.
Available funds: The funds must be available for use. Funds on hold don't qualify as a deposit for this refund. This includes holds on deposits or other types of holds.
For example, you deposit a $500 check to your account using USAA Deposit@Mobile®, but a $400 hold is placed on the deposit. This means only $100 of the deposit is available for the overdraft fee refund.
For more information, review the Funds Availability Policy of the Depository Agreement and Disclosures.
How can I make a deposit, and what are the cutoff times?
How overdraft fees work
Video Duration: 2 minutes 23 seconds
The standard overdraft setting: Elapsed time 0 minutes 0 seconds [00:00]
Have you ever forgotten about a scheduled bill or a check that you wrote? It happens.
Our Standard Overdraft setting can allow transactions like your bills, checks and certain electronic payments like your mortgage payments to be paid even when you don't have enough available balance to cover them. This could save you from fees from merchants related to things like late payments and returned checks.
A $29 overdraft fee could apply for each item that causes an overdraft. And you could be charged this fee one time per day, per account.
But we have tools and settings to help you avoid those fees or get them refunded.
Overdraft fee cushion: Elapsed time 0 minutes 37 seconds [00:37]
We won't charge an overdraft fee if your available balance is overdrawn by $50 or less after all transactions have processed at the end of the business day. We also won't charge you an overdraft fee for transactions that are $5 or less. We call this our Overdraft Fee Cushion.
Overdraft fee refund window: Elapsed time 0 minutes 54 seconds [00:54]
With Overdraft Fee Refund Window, we provide a refund of an Overdraft Fee charged to your account if we receive a qualifying deposit to the account within a window of time after the Overdraft Item posting date.
Description of visual information: [The following types of transactions may be eligible for coverage under our Standard Overdraft setting: checks, ACH A C H transactions, payments using the USAA Pay Bills service, and recurring debit card transactions.] End of description.
Here's an example of how it works.
A $200 utility bill comes in for payment on a Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, you check your balance on the mobile app and notice your account is overdrawn by $100. If you make a qualifying deposit to bring your available balance to at least negative $50 before the deposit cutoff time on Wednesday, we'll refund any applicable overdraft fee.
Description of visual information: [We'll provide a refund of an Overdraft Fee charged to your account if we receive a qualifying deposit to your account before the applicable deposit cutoff time on the business day following the posting of the item causing the overdraft. The deposit cutoff time is generally 9 p.m. Central Time, but earlier cutoff times may apply: 5 p.m. Central Time for USAA Federal Savings Bank teller deposits and 7 p.m. Central Time for USAA ATMs ATM's that accept deposits (unless a different time is posted on the ATM). See the Depository Agreement & Disclosures for details.] End of description.
And, if you get text or email messages from USAA, you'll receive an alert letting you know your account is overdrawn and that you can take action to get a refund if an overdraft fee applies.
Auto-decline setting: Elapsed time 1 minute 50 seconds [01:50]
If you don't want to risk getting an overdraft fee, you may want to consider our Auto Decline setting.
With this setting, we will decline or return most payments if you don't have enough available balance to cover them, so you'll never receive an overdraft fee. You can switch to the Auto-Decline setting from your Account Summary page any time.
We know life is full of surprises and that you might spend more than you have in your account. USAA has the tools and settings to help.
Description of visual information: [Bank products provided by USAA Federal Savings Bank, Member FDIC.] End of description.
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