If you sometimes slip into overdraft, your bank is back to charging you a lot more than it almost had to. A federal cap that would have made the typical fee $5 is gone. Some banks already pushed theirs back up to $20, with less margin for error before it triggers.
That cap was the CFPB's December 2024 rule. It would have set most overdraft fees at $5 for banks and credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets, an estimated $5 billion a year in fees that would have stayed in customers' accounts. The CFPB's own math: families that actually pay overdraft fees would have saved about $225 a year (National Consumer Law Center).
That rule never took effect. Congress killed it under the Congressional Review Act, and President Trump signed the resolution on May 9, 2025 (Holland & Knight). Under the CRA, the CFPB cannot reissue a "substantially similar" rule without new authorization from Congress. Translation: this cap is not coming back without another vote.
What happened next was predictable. BMO had dropped its overdraft fee from $36 to $15 in 2025 and watched the revenue drain. In 2026 it raised the fee to $20 and shrank the no-fee buffer from $50 to $20. Wells Fargo's per-account fee in 2025 ran $15. Regions Bank charged $30. Roughly one in four households pays an overdraft fee in a year. In 2025, banks and credit unions pulled in over $12 billion in overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees, with the top 20 banks alone taking in about $4 billion.
The headline reads "consumer protection rolled back." The wallet reads "every overdraft costs you four times what a $5 cap would have."
Here's the catch. There is no version of this where waiting solves it. A small and growing list of banks charge $0 in overdraft fees: Capital One 360, Ally, Charles Schwab High Yield Investor Checking, Discover Cashback Debit. They have for years. The bank's bet is that you will not move.
Do this now. Three steps, none of them take a weekend.
First, pull your last twelve months of statements. Look for "overdraft fee" or "NSF fee" lines. Even one means your bank costs you real money. Move your primary checking to a $0-overdraft account. The application is online. You keep your direct deposit, you keep your debit card, you pay nothing the next time you cut it close.
Second, turn on low-balance and pending-charge alerts in your current bank's app, today. If your bank charges $20 to catch a debit you would have caught with a text, it is counting on you not turning the text on.
Third, park a buffer in a high-yield savings account and link it to your checking. Our savings calculator shows what $1,000 sitting at 4% earns in a year versus what a single $20 overdraft costs. The savings account pays you. The overdraft taxes you.
Ranking
Where to park your cushion: high-yield savings picks
Top APYs with low fees and easy access.
| Rank | Company | Best for | Key stat | Score | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  DiscoverDiscover Online Savings | Best overall high-yield savings | 3.30% APY (June 2026, variable) | 9.2/10 | |
| 2 | AllyAlly Online Savings | Best for savings tools | 3.00% APY (June 2026, variable) | 9.1/10 | |
| 3 | Marcus by Goldman SachsMarcus Online Savings | Best for simplicity | 3.40% APY (June 2026, variable) | 9/10 | |
| 4 | SoFiSoFi Checking and Savings | Best combined checking and savings | Up to 3.80% APY with direct deposit (June 2026, variable) | 9/10 | |
| 5 |  Capital OneCapital One 360 Performance Savings | Best from a big bank | 3.00% APY (June 2026, variable) | 8.8/10 |
File this away for the long version. Congress had the chance to keep the $5 cap and chose not to. Whether the cap was the right tool is your call. What is not your call is the bill that lands in your account the next time you mistime a paycheck. That is on the bank's terms now. Make sure they are not also yours.
How Candid Yak makes money. Some of the products we write about pay us if you apply or sign up through our links. That never changes our verdict, our rankings, or the numbers in this article. We call a bad deal a bad deal whether it pays us or not. Some brands shown in our comparison tools are placeholder examples while we finalize partner agreements, and we label them as such.