Understanding Personal Overdrafts

An overdraft occurs when there isn’t enough money in your personal checking account to cover a payment or purchase. Overdrafts can occur for a variety of reasons ranging from financial emergencies to honest mistakes.

Overdraft Coverage Options

Although it’s best to avoid overdrafts altogether, we recognize that sometimes overdrafts happen. When overdrafts do occur, it’s easier for your items to be paid rather than returned. To help with this, we offer three options for discretionary overdraft payment coverage on all personal checking accounts:

Standard Coverage

Selecting this option means Bar Harbor Bank & Trust may authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions:

Checks and other transactions made using your checking account number
Automatic bill payments
Recurring Debit Card payments

This option does not authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions:

ATM Transactions
Everyday Debit Card Transactions

When you choose this option, you agree that we can charge you a fee for each paid item, up to five (5) per business day, when you do not have sufficient funds.

Standard and ATM/Debit Card Coverage

Selecting this option means Bar Harbor Bank & Trust may authorize and pay any transaction and overdraw your account, INCLUDING:

ATM transactions
One-time Debit Card purchases

When you choose this option, you agree that we can charge you a fee for each paid item, up to five (5) per business day, when you do not have sufficient funds.

No Overdraft Coverage

Selecting this option means Bar Harbor Bank & Trust will generally return items that overdraw your account and charge you an overdraft fee for each returned item, up to five (5) per business day.

When you choose this option, we generally decline ATM transactions and one-time Debit Card purchases and we will not charge you a fee.

Regardless of which overdraft coverage option you choose, it is important to know that:

We do not guarantee that we will always authorize and pay any type of transaction when you do not have sufficient available funds.
If we choose not to pay a transaction, we will charge you a fee for each item returned unpaid, up to five (5) per business day, due to insufficient or unavailable funds in your account. For a detailed list of fees, please review the Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Fee Schedule.
If you overdraw your account, you are responsible for bringing your account balance to a positive amount within thirty (30) days of the overdraft.
Additional terms and conditions are disclosed in the Personal Deposit Account Agreement and Disclosures. Overdraft Coverage selections need to be validated and agreed to by signing the appropriate form to enroll in the elected overdraft coverage program.

Understanding Overdraft Elections

Comparing Options

To help you understand how each Overdraft Coverage Option work, below is an example of an overdraft situation and how your account would be impacted depending on which option you chose.

Overdraft Scenario:

On Monday, your account balance is $50
That same day, two things happen:

A check you wrote for $100 posts to your account
You go to the grocery store and buy $75 worth of groceries

Here is what would happen with each type of Overdraft Coverage:

With Standard Coverage:

Your check would be paid. You would be charged an Overdraft Fee for this item and would need to bring your account back to a positive balance within 30 days.
Your grocery store debit card transaction would be denied.

With Standard and ATM/Debit Card Coverage:

The check and debit card transaction would be paid.
You would be charged an Overdraft Fee for each item paid and would need to bring your account back to a positive balance within 30 days.

With No Coverage:

Your check would be returned and would not be paid. You would be charged an Overdraft Fee for this item regardless of it being returned.
Your debit card transaction would be denied.

Overdraft Fees and Limits

Regardless of which overdraft coverage option you choose, when you overdraft your account you will see an Overdraft Fee of $34 per item.

Important information about Overdraft Fees:

There is a limit to the total fees that we will charge you for overdrawing your account. We will not charge for more than 5 transactions per day or a daily maximum of $170.
Your available balance may be affected by authorizations which could create additional overdrafts and associated fees. For example, three paid items in one day will result in three paid item overdraft fees. To help you manage your account, the total fees you have paid for items (both paid and returned) during the current month and for the year-to-date will be reflected on your monthly checking statement.

Each personal checking account has different overdraft protection limit. Below is a handy list that outlines the limits for each account. Please note that your Overdraft Protection limit will not be reflected in balance inquiries in automated systems.

Simple Checking: $500 limit
Relationship Rewards Checking: $800 limit
E-Choice Checking: $500 limit

Ways to Prevent Overdrafts

There are easy steps you can take to try to avoid overdrafts. Although most of our accounts do not have a minimum account balance requirement, we recommend that you keep a cushion in your checking account to protect against overdrafts and overdraft fees. Using the tools below will help you stay on top of your account balance and avoid costly overdrafts.

Your Monthly Statement

Each month, we send you a statement outlining all the transactions that were posted to your checking account during the prior month. Reviewing this statement is the first step toward keeping track of what has cleared your account and what is still outstanding.

Online & Mobile Banking

Use these tools to check your account activity as needed to be aware of how much you can spend or withdraw. Remember to subtract from your available balance any pending transactions that are not yet listed. Visit the Bar Harbor Online page and the Bar Harbor Mobile page to learn more.

Alerts

Use online or mobile banking to set up automated alerts that will notify you whenever your selected criteria are met. For example, you can set up an alert that will email or text you when your account drops below a specified balance. Visit the Create Custom Alerts page to learn more.

More Ways to Cover Overdrafts

Sometimes, situations can arise where you might wish to have access to more money than you have available in your checking account. To meet this need, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust offers Overdraft Lines of Credit and Sweep Protection from your deposit account.

Overdraft Line of Credit

Available to credit-qualified customers, an Overdraft Line of Credit gives you overdraft protection and the comfort of knowing your checks can be paid even if your checking account balance is lower than planned.

Application and credit approval required. Each time you access the Overdraft Line of Credit, there is a $5 advance fee and interest expenses accrue.

Please ask us about current rates.

Sweep Protection

This service allows you to set up an automated transfer between your deposit account and another Bar Harbor Bank & Trust account. As long as there is a sufficient balance in your attached account, sweep protection will automatically transfer funds to cover any overdraft transactions in your checking account.

Sweep protection adds convenience by automating the transfer process and ensuring that you never forget to transfer the right amount. There is a $5 fee (waived for Relationship Rewards) for each day a sweep occurs.

Enrollment is required for this service.

Please review the Personal Overdraft Protection Disclosure for full details on the above services. Please note that the Overdraft Protection Authorization and Acknowledgment must be signed in order to opt in for Standard Overdraft Protection Coverage and Check and ATM/Debit Card Coverage.