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Are there any banks (in the US) that do not have an overdraft facility? That is, an account which cannot have a negative balance and they simply reject/decline transactions that would take the account below zero, thus no overdraft and no overdraft fees.

So far everything I've seen has all had various "overdraft options" for reducing the impact of an overdraft (e.g. automatic money transfer from a savings account) but nothing that wouldn't incur additional expenses.

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Yes. This article describes opting-out: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/overdraft-fees-what-banks-charge/

It is true, I think, that most banks will offer this as a "courtesy" by default, but I believe that they must offer an option to opt-out. I checked my bank's webpage, and they explicitly describe how to opt-out by calling a number or visiting a bank branch, but it required digging carefully to find that information.

That being said, are you sure that you'd really want to opt-out? The bank can still charge a fee for non-sufficient funds (NSF) and whoever was expecting the payment may also charge you late fees and service fees. It's much better just to make sure that you don't overdraw through careful planning.

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  • Rest assured I'm not personally looking for such a service, I'm just curious why they're so hard to find, if they exist at all. I was searching after a friend was complaining about his overdraft charges.
    – Dai
    Sep 15, 2015 at 22:23
  • @Dai I imagine that it's hard to find it not coming by default because they can market it as a courtesy that they don't have to extend and then still charge you fees when you use it. It's the best of everything for the bank.
    – user32479
    Sep 15, 2015 at 23:12

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