Overdraft options and fees FAQ

We use several account history factors to determine whether we pay an overdraft item or return it. Some of the account information we look at includes deposit history, age of the account and debit history on the account. 

It depends on the situation, so we’re unable to guarantee we’ll pay for the overdraft item.

If your account’s available balance is overdrawn by more than $50 after all transactions have processed at the end of the business day, then you may be subject to a $29 overdraft fee per day, per account. This fee is only on eligible transactions.

Part of Standard Overdraft is the Overdraft Fee Cushion. We won’t charge an overdraft fee if your account’s available balance is overdrawn by $50 or less after all transactions have processed at the end of the business day. And we won’t charge an overdraft fee for any transaction of $5 or less.

We won't charge more than 1 overdraft fee on any 1 business day, per account. We also won't charge overdraft fees for ATM or 1-time debit card transactions.

We’ll provide a refund of an overdraft fee charged to your account if we receive a qualifying deposit to your account.

A qualifying deposit could include a funds transfer, Zelle® deposit‍ ‍ ^{See note 2} or deposit of other available funds. It must also meet these requirements:

Timing of deposit: We must receive the deposit before the cutoff time on the business day following the posting date of the overdraft item.

For example, if an overdraft item posts to your account on Monday, we must receive the deposit before 9 p.m. on Tuesday or earlier on Tuesday depending on which deposit method you use.

For most business days, the cutoff times are as follows:

• 5 p.m. CT for USAA Bank teller deposits
• 7 p.m. CT for USAA Bank ATMs that accept deposits, unless a different time is posted on the ATM
• 9 p.m. CT for most other deposit cutoff times

For more information, review the Funds Availability Policy section of the Depository Agreement and Disclosures Opens in a New Window.

Amount of deposit: The deposit must be enough to bring the account’s available balance to at least negative $50, not including the overdraft fee subject to refund.

In other words, your account’s available balance must be overdrawn by $50 or less after all items are processed at the end of the business day following the posting date of the overdraft item. This doesn’t include the overdraft fee, which is subject to a refund.

There may be items that affect your available balance that don’t appear on the USAA Mobile App or usaa.com until after processing at the end of the business day. You’ll need to keep track of checks you’ve written or payments you’ve authorized.

Available funds: The funds must be available for use. Funds on hold doesn’t qualify as a deposit for this refund. This includes holds on deposits or other types of holds.

For example, you deposit a $500 check to your account using USAA Deposit@Mobile®‍ ‍ ^{See note 3}, but a $400 hold is placed on the deposit. This means only $100 of the deposit is available for the overdraft fee refund.

For more information, review the Funds Availability Policy of the Depository Agreement and Disclosures Opens in a New Window.

No, there’s no limit to the number of Overdraft Fee Refund Window refunds you can get. 

Yes, unless you choose the Auto-Decline setting, we may authorize and pay overdrafts for checks and electronic ACH payments.

Remember, it’s always at our discretion to decide whether or not we’ll pay a transaction.

By default, all members enrolled in Standard Overdraft will get overdraft alert notifications by push notifications, email and to their USAA inbox. This alert explains the transaction details and account activity that caused the overdrawn balance.

Members who have opted out of receiving push notifications and email alerts won’t get a notification by push or email. But they’ll still get the notice in their USAA messaging inbox. You can review your inbox alerts by logging on to usaa.com or the USAA Mobile App. 

On the business day the account begins with an overdrawn balance, we’ll send an alert to all account owners notifying them of the negative balance. The next business day, we’ll send another alert if we received a qualifying deposit to the account and refunded the overdraft fee through the Overdraft Fee Refund Window.

No, your USAA Bank savings account isn’t eligible for Standard Overdraft, and we won’t charge it overdraft fees.

If you choose a checking or savings account as the protecting account, there’s no fee for the overdraft protection transfer.   

But if you choose a credit card as the protecting account, the transfers are treated as cash advances. Based on the terms and conditions of your credit card agreement, interest, fees, and charges associated with the credit card, cash advances may apply. 

Overdraft protection helps cover transactions if your available balance isn’t enough to pay them by transferring your own funds you have available from another linked deposit or credit card account.

With Standard Overdraft, USAA Bank may choose to pay for certain transactions at our discretion if your available balance isn’t enough. After an overdraft, we may charge you a $29 fee for eligible transactions. 

This fee may be refunded if we receive a qualifying deposit during the Overdraft Fee Refund Window.

Let’s say you enrolled your checking account in overdraft protection and linked a USAA Bank checking or savings account as your protecting account. This means available money from the protecting account will automatically transfer to your account to help cover your transactions.

But what if you don’t have enough available funds in your protecting account to help cover your transactions and your checking account is set to Standard Overdraft? We may choose to pay the transactions, at our discretion, causing an overdraft. This may result in overdraft fees. 

Let’s say you enrolled your checking account in overdraft protection and linked a USAA Bank credit card as your protecting account. Then your checking account isn’t eligible for Standard Overdraft. It’s automatically set to our Auto-Decline setting.

This means your checking account transactions could be returned unpaid if there isn’t enough available credit on your protecting account.

For details, review the Depository Agreement and Disclosures Opens in a New Window.

You can set up, change, or cancel overdraft protection for an account on usaa.com, the USAA Mobile App or by calling us at 800-531-USAA (8722). Set up overdraft protection.

The best way to protect yourself from overdraft fees is to know your balance and don’t spend money you don’t have. 

Here are a few more things you can do:

• Understand your overdraft options, like Standard Overdraft and Auto-Decline. The Auto-Decline overdraft setting will generally decline transactions that your account doesn’t have enough money for. You won’t get charged a fee. 
• Set up online banking push notifications and email alerts to be notified when your balance is low and to monitor specific transactions. 
• Sign up for overdraft protection. So if you spend more money than you have in your checking or savings account, we'll automatically transfer money from your protecting account at our discretion to cover the difference.

NSFs happen when a payment is returned unpaid because you spent more money than your available balance in your account. We don't charge NSF fees for items declined or returned unpaid, but the merchant or other payee might.

A return occurs when your account’s available balance isn’t enough to pay for an item, so the bank doesn’t pay it. Overdraft fees don’t apply to returned items, but the merchant or other payee may charge a fee.

It depends on your overdraft setting, if you have overdraft protection, the transaction type and a variety of other factors. These factors could include your account history, the deposits you make and the transaction amount.

We decline your ATM withdrawals and one-time debit card purchases when your account's available balance isn't enough to pay for them at the time of the transaction. If this happens, we don't charge you a fee for the declined transaction.

Sometimes a transaction is authorized when your account has enough money in it. But when it’s later finalized, your account doesn’t have enough available balance anymore. In this case, we’ll process the transaction and it'll cause an overdraft, but we won’t charge an overdraft fee.

Account alerts: Get real-time alerts when your account balance falls below where you want it to be. Set up account alerts.

USAA budgeting tool: Track your spending, set up your budget and view all your accounts in one place. Use our budgeting tool.

USAA Advice Center: Find a wide range of tips to help you manage your finances. Visit the USAA Advice Center.