UNDERSTANDING AND AVOIDING OVERDRAFTS AND NON-SUFFICIENT FUNDS (NSF) FEES

This account can be drawn past the available balance causing a negative balance, also known as overdraft or non-sufficient funds (NSF). The following section summarizes the contractual terms related to overdrafts and NSF transactions. This information is essential to understanding such transactions and avoiding the charges and fees assessed.

Understanding Your Account Balance: The current balance on your account (otherwise known as the ledger balance) is the balance upon the close of the current business day. Outstanding transactions such as checks or electronic transactions that have not been presented to us, the bank, are not included in this current balance. Please refer to the Funds Availability Policy to further understand what is known as your current collected balance and how that may affect transactions in your account.

Overdrafts: An overdraft typically is the result of you initiating a transaction without the sufficient funds to cover the amount in the account, but the financial institution ‘covers’ or pays the item regardless. Overdraft fees will be assessed, and the outstanding overdraft amount will need to be repaid.

You acknowledge our discretion to approve withdrawal requests that result in an overdraft of your account. However, we are not obligated to replicate any previous approvals or denials of payments. Therefore, you cannot rely on us to cover overdrafts regardless of past occurrences. Our policy regarding discretionary overdrafts may change without prior notice. You are encouraged to inquire about alternative account services, like overdraft protection or fund transfers, which may assist in overdraft coverage under specific conditions. You consent to the possibility of overdraft fees, which may be covered by subsequent deposits, including government benefits.

We do allow you to indicate your preference on whether we ‘strive to pay’ overdraft transactions when presented. Please refer to Courtesy Pay and Courtesy Pay PLUS Overdraft Program details for more information.

It is our policy not to charge fees for overdrafts caused by ATM withdrawals or one-time, commonly referred to as ‘everyday’, debit card transactions if you have not opted-in to the program. An overdraft fee will not be assessed for transactions that cause the overdraft balance to be less than $10.00 (de minimus) or if a service charge is the sole cause of the overdraft.

Non-sufficient Funds (NSF) Fees: . If an item drafted by you (such as a check) or a transaction you setup (such as a preauthorized transfer) is presented for payment in an amount that is more than the amount of money in your account, and we decide not to pay the item or transaction, you agree that we can charge you an NSF fee for returning the payment. Be aware that such an item or payment may be presented multiple times by the merchant or other payee until it is paid. In this event, we do monitor items that are presented multiple times and will not charge you an NSF fee each time a payment is presented if the amount of money in your account is not sufficient to cover the payment, regardless of the number of times the payment is presented. In the event you are charged an NSF fee in error for an item presented multiple times, please contact us. In addition to fees that may be charged by the Bank, an NSF transaction being returned unpaid to merchants or other payee may also result in fees being imposed by those merchants or other third parties.

Balance Information and Funds Availability: Understanding your available balance is crucial to avoiding overdrafts and NSF transactions. Your balance is available for review via online banking, periodic statements as well as by inquiry at any of our branch locations. Inquiry can be done both over the phone and in-person and will require identity verification. Please refer to our separate disclosure titled ‘The Eastern Colorado Bank Funds Availability Disclosure’ for specific information pertaining to different deposit types and when those funds become available to you.

If an account type does not adhere to our funds availability policy, you are encouraged to inquire on the funds availability at the time of deposit. An item may be returned after the funds have been made available for withdrawal. In this case, we will reverse the credit to the account and determine how we shall proceed with items presented on the account in question from the time the deposit was made available and returned. We need only make one decision, but if we decide to make a subsequent decision, the account balance will determine whether there are sufficient funds available.

Payment Types and Processing Timeframes: These are some of the most used transaction types that allow you to access your funds – debit card transactions, automated clearing house (ACH), and check transactions. Each of these payment types uses different processing systems and therefore, process on different timelines. It is important to keep track of the transactions processing so that you can accurately estimate the remaining available balance.

An example of this processing timeline is if you were to use your debit card at one merchant and provide preauthorized ACH payment instructions for a monthly bill on the same day, they may not process on the same day. Some merchants ‘batch’ or submit their accumulated card transactions days later and it would not be shown in your account until that process is finished. The ACH payment may not be processed until the beginning of the next month depending on the bill’s due date. This is why understanding and tracking your balance by considering transactions that may not be shown yet in your account is so important. For more information on how and when we process each payment type, see the Payment Order of Items section below.

Payment Order of Items: When there are insufficient funds to pay all items presenting on your account, the order of which we pay the items will be important to understand. The order we pay items per our policy may affect which items are paid and which will either overdraw your account or be returned as unpaid. Based on the payment order, specifically how many items were returned or allowed to overdraw, may also determine the amount of fees you will be responsible for. We encourage you to responsibly manage your account using good record keeping avoiding initiating transactions without the sufficient funds to cover the transaction and incurring the resulting fees associated with overdrawing your account or having NSF transactions.

Our policy is to use chronological posing order to post your items. Credits will always post first, followed by force posted items (items used for cash, wires, loan payments, official check purchases, transfers done between accounts in the bank, and person-to-person payments) in chronological order then all other remaining items pay in chronological order.

If you are interested in additional information pertaining to overdrafts, please refer to the Courtesy Pay and Courtesy Pay PLUS overdraft program. The following account types are ineligible for the Overdraft Program: Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), Kids Savings accounts, COLTAF/IOLTA accounts, Opportunity Checking accounts and Certificate of Deposit (CD) accounts.