Member-Friendly Changes to Overdraft Policies

At UMassFive, we understand that our members lead busy lives, and we know some days this means that ensuring you have enough funds in your account to cover your purchases may take a back seat to more pressing items.

It is with this in mind that we are proud to detail some recent member-friendly changes that we have made to our overdraft and insufficient funds practices.

• Only two overdraft fees may be charged on an account per processing day. The same also applies for insufficient funds fees. This reduction was made to ensure that we are not contributing to the angst a member may be feeling when they are having “one of those days.”
• The maximum amount that an overdraft can bring an account into a negative balance has increased to $1,000 for accounts set up with a direct deposit. This ensures members are able to cover greater expenses, like a car payment or bill, if needed. If you would like to sign up for this increased limit, please call our Contact Center, visit a branch, or send us a secure message in Online Banking.

These updated changes went into effect on January 3, 2023, the first business day of the New Year. In addition to these changes, don’t forget that you can always use your Co-op Points to waive any overdraft or insufficient funds fees that you do incur during a given month.

Keeping the cost of conducting financial services as low as possible and making every effort to keep our fees to a minimum, are core beliefs that the Credit Union is built upon. Regularly re-assessing our overdraft and insufficient funds practices for fairness is just one of the ways that we strive to uphold our greater mission of bettering your financial day, and future.

*What is the difference between an overdraft and an insufficient funds fee?

An overdraft occurs when you do not have the money available in your account to pay for your transaction, but as a courtesy (in most situations) we honor the transaction and allow your account to temporarily have a negative available balance.

Insufficient funds fees occur when you do not have the money available in your account to cover the payment for your transaction, and you have either exhausted the available balance of all of your elected overdraft protections, or you  do not have any overdraft protections set up on your account. In this situation the transaction—for example a check—would not be paid by UMassFive, and rather the debt would be returned to the payee (or bounced) who would then request an alternate form of payment.

Our Co-op Points program allows you to waive any overdraft or insufficient funds fee after it is incurred, provided that you have the points available in the current monthly statement cycle.

Return to Newsletter