If you don’t have enough money in your account to cover a check, debit card purchase, recurring debit card or ACH transaction, your financial institution can either reject the transaction or cover it for you. When they cover or protect you from overdrawn accounts, it’s called “overdraft protection”. This can sometimes be embarrassing and expensive because most financial institutions charge a fee. In the case of a bounced check, the check recipient may also charge a fee.

There are three ways to manage transactions when there are insufficient funds:

Reject the transaction – The financial institution can simply decline the transaction or send back a check you wrote. Note that the check or ACH can be re-submitted, and it will only process when you have enough money in your account. Many financial institutions charge a non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee for rejected items, but Stanford FCU refunds 100% of NSF fees.

Account-to-account transfer – You can link your other accounts at the same financial institution to automatically transfer money into your account to cover a transaction when there isn’t enough money. At Stanford FCU you can set up your savings, money market or credit card to cover checks and ACH items. Most banks charge for these automatic account-to-account transfers (and for cash advance fees if you link to a credit card), but Stanford FCU does not and never has.

Courtesy Pay – You can opt into allowing your financial institution to cover transactions when you don’t have enough money, and they will charge a fee for each transaction. At Stanford FCU, Courtesy Pay will cover check, debit card, and ACH transactions. Courtesy Pay is free for transactions under $10, and will cover up to four transactions per day with a Premium OD/Courtesy Pay fee. Our fees are listed on our Fee Schedule

Avoid rejected transactions with overdraft protection!

Call 888.723.7328 or send a secure Message through Online Banking or the mobile app ( App Store | Google Play ) to set up account-to-account transfers and opt into Courtesy Pay to protect yourself if your account goes negative.