subject: Covering Your Assets: Is Overdraft Protection Worth The Fees? [print this page] Credit Score Restoration is a hot button subject with people looking to buy and sell real estate in Arizona. Credit Repair of flawed records can occur in many ways. One of the easiest methods to get back on track financially is to avoid costly overdraft penalties from your bank. New laws that went into effect July 1, 2010 (August 15 for existing accounts) have lifted the banking institutions control of your overdraft options. Traditionally, most banks would automatically cover you if you swiped a bank card to pay for something that cost more than your account held. Unfortunately, the downside is the excessive fee the banks then automatically deduct from your savings or checking account. This banking practice has been the bane of many a careless budget keeper, often accompanied by a knee jerk reaction such as Why are they charging me more money if I obviously dont have enough to begin with? Under the new laws, banks stand to lose billions of dollars ($38 billion by 2009 standards), which theyve become used to collecting from their otherwise careless customers. What card holders now face is the responsibility to keep up with their balances and the reality that they may no longer be able to buy impulsively. While this may take some getting used to by shopaholics, the end result is that everyone should have more judicious financial habits which hopefully will lead to positive results on the credit score
restoration side.
What does credit score restoration (and for our purposes, Arizona credit repair specifically) have to do with your personal bank account fees? Not much in terms of what credit reporting agencies see, since were talking mostly about checking and savings account related cards. But as the check card goes, so goes the credit card, (and that sagging credit score is waiting for you to develop better habits so that it may return to full health). Nevertheless, the choice to opt in for overdraft protection is still available, but the practice should be more transparent now, with users able to decide if they want mama bank covering their excessive spending. This protection will still come at a price (of course) and may be an option for some. If, however, this is the year you declare to spend within your limits and pay down those credit cards, you might be better off with some more responsible back up plans, like carrying an alternate source of payment or linking your checking to savings. No one likes to hear that their card has been rejected, so keeping better tabs on how close you are to the limit, (say, with text alerts from your bank) might be a cheaper, less embarrassing alternative.
Arizona credit repair policies are not altogether different than credit repair or credit restoration techniques in other states. Though with the housing market in places like Scottsdale is heating up like the desert sun once more, fiscal responsibility has never been more urgent. What better way to repair and restore your credit than to spend less on annoying overdraft fees and use that money to dig out of a hole and into a sparkling new home?
