Overdraft Protection
What is it?
An overdraft occurs when you do not have enough available funds in your checking account to cover a transaction. Circle FCU offers several options to manage these situations, including standard overdraft practices that come with your account and overdraft protection plans, such as setting up overdraft transfers as shown below.
Standard Overdraft Practices
We DO authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions:
- Checks and other transactions made using your checking account number
- Automatic bill payment
We DO NOT authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions UNLESS you ask us to:
- ATM transactions
- Everyday debit card transactions
Setting Up Automatic Transfers
One overdraft protection option we offer is to set up automatic transfers from another designated account, such as a sub-savings, to cover the insufficient funds in your checking account.
Transfer From Another Account
You can set up an automatic transfer from your regular share, sub-savings, premier savings, optimum savings, another checking account, or another membership you are on. There is no fee for this transfer to occur.
Transfer From a Line of Credit or Visa Credit Card
You can also set up an automatic transfer from a line of credit, such as a HELOC, revolving line of credit, or your Visa credit card. There is no fee for this transfer to occur, although subsequent interest charges may accrue as these are loans. Transfers will be processed as an overdraft transfer.
Courtesy Pay
If you have not set up or designated an automatic transfer to occur to cover your insufficient funds, then Courtesy Pay will come into play. Courtesy Pay is a service that allows members to overdraft their checking accounts up to $500 (inclusive of fees) for debit card transactions, checks, and recurring and one-time ACH transactions.
- A Courtesy Pay fee of $21 is charged for EACH overdraft transaction, as disclosed on our Fee Schedule.
- Overdrafts above the Courtesy Pay limit of $500 may result in items being returned unpaid to the merchant or payee. A Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fee will also be charged to your account (see below).
Courtesy Pay for ATM & Everyday Debit Card Transactions
- If opted in, these transactions WILL be covered by Courtesy Pay if sufficient funds are not available up to $500.
- If opted out, these transactions may be DECLINED. An NSF fee could also be charged if the funds are not available.
Authorize Overdraft Protection Form
Repayment of Courtesy Pay
Courtesy Pay payments made by CFCU to cover a transaction must be repaid. You must bring your account to a positive balance at least once within every 30-day period. The account must remain positive for 24 hours before it can be taken negative by Courtesy Pay again.
- Transfer funds from another account to bring the overdrafted account back to a positive or zero balance. Funds can be transferred from your regular share, sub-savings, premier savings, optimum savings, another checking account, or another membership you are on.
- If you need more time or assistance, contact our Collections Specialist by calling 269-684-6005.
Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF)
An NSF occurs when you don't have the funds available in your checking account to pay one or more of your transactions and you don't have Courtesy Pay or an Overdraft Protection option in place.
- The transaction is not paid by CFCU and is returned.
- An NSF fee of $21 is charged for every returned transaction as disclosed on our Fee Schedule.
Repayment of Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF)
If an NSF fee takes your account negative, any negative balances with the Credit Union must be made positive within a 30-day period.
- Transfer funds from another account to bring the negative account back to a positive or zero balance. Funds can be transferred from your regular share, sub-savings, premier savings, optimum savings, another checking account, or another membership you are on.
- If you need more time or assistance, contact our Collections Specialist by calling 269-684-6005.
Overdrafts are paid at our discretion, which means we do not guarantee that we will always authorize and pay any type of transaction. Each individual check item can be presented up to two times, while an ACH item can be presented an unlimited amount of times, although an ACH representment will only incur one intial NSF fee. Any subsequent retries with not get charged a fee.
