Starbucks should be pleased; the "$37 cup of coffee" will become a cliche of the past.
Soon, you'll have to opt-in if you want your bank to cover overdrafts on everyday transactions. Otherwise, debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals will be denied once you're out of money.
A lot of people are happy to do without this protection. Small debit card errors can add up to huge expenses. However, if you like your overdraft protection program you'll have to get in touch with your bank.
The opt-in requirement doesn't apply to checks or automatic electronic payments. Your bank may still allow those and charge a fee if they like.
Further reading:
This is a good change. Prepaid debit cards like the MiCash MasterCard have traditionally not offered overdraft protection, due to the fact that there is no guarantee that a cardholder in an overdraft situation would reload their card with money to cover any overdraft fees. But now this benefit extends to traditional checking account debit cards too. Of course the banks are fighting back because overdrafts have been a great revenue stream for them.
This change protects the consumer. Many just can’t perform simple addition and subtraction. And then they blame the bank when they have to pay $100s in overdraft fees each month. Chase has a good system. We opened a savings account and put some money there. If an overdraft situation arises, money is transferred from the savings account. Plus we get a text message alert if the account goes into overdraft. A fee of $35 to cover an overdraft is sick. Good for the bank, but bad for the customer.