When an account holder spends more money than is available in their checking account, that account goes into a state of negative balance, called overdraft.

A customer can easily overdraw their account by writing checks, swiping debit cards, withdrawing cash at ATMs and setting up automatic debit card or ACH payments.

When these many modes of spending draw money from a single account, a customer can quickly lose track of their account balance and end up facing an annoying and even dangerous amount of overdraft fees.

What’s worse is that some banks offer overdraft protection services that may be taking advantage of a customer’s oversight. For example, Ally Bank overdraft fees may quickly add up if a customer isn’t aware they have the choice to participate in the overdraft protection program.

Why Do Banks Charge an Overdraft Fee?

Overdraft fees represent some of the highest checking account fees that banks charge. This essentially translates to overdraft fees being a huge source of revenue for banks.

A 2007 study by the Center for Responsible Lending said consumers are paying fees of $17.5 billion annually — on automatic overdraft loans of $15.8 billion per year.

“This is a huge amount of money for the banks,” says Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services at Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C.

In fact, most everyone has been slapped with an overdraft fee at some point in their lives.  Many banks rely on a customers’ oversight and can be extremely sneaky in finding ways to help customers overdraft their accounts, including reordering transactions or charging excessive overdraft fees.

Depending on bank policy, each overdraft charge will result in a fee with a maximum cap being three or four fees per day. If each overdraft fee comes at $35 and you don’t max out until four charges, that’s $140 in possible excessive overdraft fees.

What is the Charge for Ally Bank Overdraft Fees?

Ally Bank used to charge a maximum of $9 per day for overdraft. However, as of July 2015, Ally Bank overdraft fees increased almost triple to $25 per day.

Ally Bank claims this hike in overdraft fee rates only impacts a small number of customers and that they pride themselves on keeping Ally Bank overdraft fees as low as possible.

Many customers were reportedly surprised and disappointed by the drastic changes to Ally Bank overdraft fees policy.

Were You Charged Excessive Overdraft Fees?

Legally, banks cannot include overdraft protection as an automatic account service, so customers must opt into activating the feature. However, many customers are not aware of this regulation or were not adequately informed when they opened their account that overdraft protection was optional.

If you were charged excessive overdraft fees or believe you were not properly informed about Ally Bank overdraft fees, you may be eligible to participate in a free class action lawsuit investigation.

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