Frequently Asked Questions: Overdrafts

If your account becomes overdrawn, you should deposit money into your account as soon as possible. The amount you deposit must be sufficient to cover the overdraft plus any fees that have been assessed or may be assessed prior to your deposit becoming available. By depositing enough money to bring your account positive you will avoid further fees from being assessed.

Overdraft Fees apply if you overdraw your account, don’t have the necessary Available Balance at the end of the day and we pay the transaction on your behalf. You will be charged an Overdraft Fee for each item paid. 

Overdraft Fee:

$35 per item paid

We will limit to 5 the number of Overdraft Fees charged on any one day, up to a total of $175. Once you have overdrawn your account, you must bring it to a positive balance as soon as possible.

Overdrafts occur when your account has insufficient funds and your available balance is unable to cover a transaction. Fees may occur. Transactions could occur via ATM, point of sale, electronic transfers such as Venmo®, Zelle®, or checks. Learn more about overdrafts here.

You can enroll or un-enroll in Debit Card Overdraft Coverage at any time over the phone by calling 1-800-922-9999 or at your local branch. Your decision is effective immediately once recorded. What You Need to Know about Overdrafts and Overdraft Fees. EverValue and Student Checking accounts are not eligible for debit card overdraft coverage.

There is no fee for the Savings Overdraft Transfer Plan.

For our Overdraft Line of Credit Plan, there is a $30 Annual Fee plus a $12 Transfer Fee each day a transfer occurs. There is no transfer fee on any day in which all overdraft transactions are $5 or less or the overdraft plan transfer is $5 or less - $5 Overdraft Pass®. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for an Overdraft Line of Credit is 21% on the outstanding loan balance.

These annual and transfer fees do not apply to Student, Citizens EverValue Checking™, Citizens Quest^®, Citizens Private Client™ Checking, and Citizens Private Bank™ Checking accounts.

Our Student Checking and Citizens EverValue Checking accounts do not come with standard overdraft coverage. So, if you don’t have sufficient available funds in your account to cover a transaction, it will be declined and, in the case of checks, bill payments and ACH transactions, the item will be returned unpaid. As a result, $5 Overdraft Pass® does not apply and these accounts are not eligible for Debit Card Overdraft Coverage enrollment.

While Student Checking and Citizens EverValue Checking accounts are designed to prevent overdrafts, there may be times when your account could have a negative balance. This could happen if a purchase you make is approved for one amount, but the final charge is more than your available balance. If a transaction results in a negative balance on your account, we will not charge you an Overdraft Fee.

Student Checking and Citizens EverValue Checking customers can set up an Overdraft Plan from a Savings account or Line of Credit to help you cover transactions when they don’t have sufficient available funds. Both plans are available with no fee on these accounts. Credit approval is required and finance charges apply.

How and when your Available Balance is affected by Online Bill Payment transactions depends on the bill payment method used. There are two possible methods that may be used to make your payment.

• Electronic Payment - As its name suggests, this type of bill payment moves funds electronically from your account to your payee (i.e., the person or company you are paying). The amount of the payment is removed from your Available Balance on the date you selected as the pay date.
• Laser Draft - This type of bill payment is similar to a check. Funds are sent from the bill payment service via a paper check payable to your payee. The amount of the payment is removed from your Available Balance only after the payee cashes or deposits your payment and it is posted (i.e., subtracted from your Account Balance) to your account. Like when you write a check, there is no way to know exactly when it will be cashed by the payee.

The bill payment service automatically determines which method to use to send funds on your behalf to your payee to pay your bills. The service sends funds to arrive as close as reasonably possible to the payment date you select. In some instances, if the payment is sent by Laser Draft, the payment may be received by the payee and subtracted from your account prior to the payment date selected. Regardless of your selected payment date, you must always have the required Available Balance in your account on the night the bill payment posts to cover this transaction, and any other transactions that post that night, to avoid overdrawing your account.

Direct deposits will initially display on the My Accounts page of Online Banking when they come in to your account during the day. That evening, once the transaction is posted to your account the name is updated to show the respective payer of the transaction (for example: Acme Co. Payroll).

At Citizens you can bank every day of the week; however certain activities, like deposits, are only processed on business days. A business day is any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday (if the holiday falls on a weekend, the holiday is considered to be the following Monday).

For example: Maria makes a deposit on Saturday. The deposit is considered made on the next business day, which is Monday. If Monday is a legal holiday (such as Memorial Day) then the deposit is considered made on Tuesday. Maria's funds will be available based on Citizens Funds Availability Policy from the business day the deposit is considered made.

If your account becomes overdrawn, you should deposit money into your account as soon as possible. The amount you deposit must be sufficient to cover the overdraft plus any fees that have been assessed or may be assessed prior to your deposit becoming available. By depositing enough money to bring your account positive you will avoid further fees from being assessed.

Overdraft Fees apply if you overdraw your account, don’t have the necessary Available Balance at the end of the day and we pay the transaction on your behalf. You will be charged an Overdraft Fee for each item paid. 

Overdraft Fee:

$35 per item paid

We will limit to 5 the number of Overdraft Fees charged on any one day, up to a total of $175. Once you have overdrawn your account, you must bring it to a positive balance as soon as possible.

If you do not enroll to include ATM and everyday debit card transactions in the Overdraft Coverage on your account, any of these transactions that exceed your Available Balance will be declined.

Overdraft Plans automatically transfer funds to your checking account before it is overdrawn.

• Savings Overdraft Transfer - automatically transfer funds from a linked savings account.
• Overdraft Line of Credit - automatically transfers funds from a linked line of credit.

There is no fee for the Savings Overdraft Transfer Plan.

For our Overdraft Line of Credit Plan, there is a $30 Annual Fee plus a $12 Transfer Fee each day a transfer occurs. There is no transfer fee on any day in which all overdraft transactions are $5 or less or the overdraft plan transfer is $5 or less - $5 Overdraft Pass®. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for an Overdraft Line of Credit is 21% on the outstanding loan balance.

These annual and transfer fees do not apply to Student, Citizens EverValue Checking™, Citizens Quest^®, Citizens Private Client™ Checking, and Citizens Private Bank™ Checking accounts.

Our Student Checking and Citizens EverValue Checking accounts do not come with standard overdraft coverage. So, if you don’t have sufficient available funds in your account to cover a transaction, it will be declined and, in the case of checks, bill payments and ACH transactions, the item will be returned unpaid. As a result, $5 Overdraft Pass® does not apply and these accounts are not eligible for Debit Card Overdraft Coverage enrollment.

While Student Checking and Citizens EverValue Checking accounts are designed to prevent overdrafts, there may be times when your account could have a negative balance. This could happen if a purchase you make is approved for one amount, but the final charge is more than your available balance. If a transaction results in a negative balance on your account, we will not charge you an Overdraft Fee.

Student Checking and Citizens EverValue Checking customers can set up an Overdraft Plan from a Savings account or Line of Credit to help you cover transactions when they don’t have sufficient available funds. Both plans are available with no fee on these accounts. Credit approval is required and finance charges apply.

An Overdraft Line of Credit or Savings Overdraft Transfer plan will apply before Citizens Peace of Mind®¹. In the event one of these plans does not have available credit or funds to fully cover the negative balance transaction(s), then Citizens Peace of Mind will take effect. Citizens Peace of Mind applies to rebating Overdraft Fees, not plan transfer fees - any applicable transfer fees will be charged.

Great news, with the new Citizens Peace of Mind¹ you have until 10PM ET on the next business day to transfer or deposit eligible funds to cover the negative available balance (minus overdraft fees) and anything else coming out of the account between now and 10PM ET on the next business day. Find out more about deposit cutoff times on the Citizens Peace of Mind page.

When determining how much you need to transfer or deposit to take advantage of Citizens Peace of Mind¹, you can check your balance in the Citizens mobile app² or Online Banking and then consider transactions that may post to your account that day — such as checks or other debits. As we do not see these transactions until they are presented for payments, only you know what transactions may post to your account and how much you need to deposit. A deposit that only partially covers transactions or overdraft items will not result in a fee reversal.

Citizens Peace of Mind¹ works based on the available balance in your account. Not all deposits increase your available balance the same day. For example, some deposits – such as checks from a bank other than Citizens – even if made by 10 pm ET the next business day, don’t cover transactions that day. But a deposit of cash or a Citizens check, or an electronic funds transfer, will generally cover the transactions.  

Transactions that occur over the weekend post to your account on Monday night. If the account is overdrawn, the fees will be deducted from the account after 11 am on Tuesday. The good news is Citizens offers Citizens Peace of Mind¹, which gives you until 10 pm ET Tuesday to deposit or transfer enough funds to bring your account to a positive available balance and have any overdraft fees automatically rebated. Citizens Peace of Mind applies to rebating Overdraft Fees not plan transfer fees - any applicable transfer fees will be charged.

No. $5 Overdraft Pass comes automatically with eligible personal checking and money market accounts. With $5 Overdraft Pass, there is no overdraft fee for any transaction of $5 or less, or if at the end of the day, your overdrawn balance is $5.00 or less. ATM and Debit Card transactions are included if you are enrolled in Debit Card Overdraft Coverage.

Overdraft fees are not applicable to Student and EverValue checking accounts so as a result, $5 Overdraft Pass® does not apply to these accounts. In addition, Student and EverValue checking accounts are not eligible for Debit Card Overdraft Coverage enrollment.

All check and pre-authorized payment overdraft items $5 or less are covered. ATM and debit card overdrafts of $5 or less are included if you are enrolled in Debit Card Overdraft Coverage. If you are not enrolled, any ATM or debit card overdraft will be declined.

No. The bank will not return overdraft items $5 or less.