> “ Free checking wasn’t free. Instead of most depositors paying a predictable (and relatively small) fee for their checking account, a tiny portion of the depo

> “ Free checking wasn’t free. Instead of most depositors paying a predictable (and relatively small) fee for their checking account, a tiny portion of the depositor base was assessed many, many $25-$35 fees stochastically based on how frequently their incomings and outgoings were temporarily mismatched.” In Australia this became illegal at some point. Maybe 10~ years ago. I believe the specific regulation was something about the fee must represent the cost associated. And obviously, the bank doesn’t actually incur any cost to reject a payment. Most definitely not $35 worth. But they could argue they incur some cost related to a negative balance. They’re lending the customer money. So CommonwealthBank (CBA, major bank, and likely many others) gave everyone a $500 over draft on their “checking account” (colloquially not referred to as “checking” in Australia). So now your account didn’t go negative, or reject payment. Overdrawing your account was a feature, and you paid for it. Having an overdraft feature was free. You were charge a fee each month based on how much you used your overdraft, plus interest if you carried a negative balance. 1-100 of overdraft was $9. The full 500 was $27 or $35. So effectively they reimplemented a very similar fee structure as a product. While the outcome was similar, this feels a lot less scumbagy.