How long does my Bank of America checking account have to be open before I can overdraft it?

Bank of America does not require a personal checking account to be open for a minimum amount of time before the account is allowed to be overdrawn. The decision about whether or not to approve a requested payment is not affected by the account’s age.

Bank of America pays overdrafts at their discretion, which means they do not guarantee that they will always, or ever, authorize and pay them, even if they have authorized and paid overdrafts for your account before. Bank of America checking accounts have two settings when it comes to overdrafts: the standard overdraft setting and the decline-all-overdrafts setting.

Bank of America Checking Account Overdraft Settings

• Most of Bank of America’s personal checking accounts come with the bank’s standard overdraft setting. With Bank of America’s standard overdraft setting, BofA will decline requested debit card purchases or ATM transactions when they determine that your account does not have sufficient funds available. However, Bank of America may still authorize payments like checks, recurring debit card transactions, or automatic bill payments even when your account has insufficient funds. When this happens, you will be charged an overdraft fee of $10.
• Bank of America’s Advantage SafeBalance checking is automatically set to decline all overdrafts. With your account set to decline all overdrafts, Bank of America will not authorize any transaction for which your account does not have sufficient funds. This means you can’t be charged an overdraft fee because your account cannot be overdrawn.
• If your account is currently set to Bank of America’s standard overdraft setting, you can contact the bank and request to have it changed to decline all overdrafts. However, if you have the Advantage SafeBalance checking account, Bank of America will not allow you to change your setting to the standard overdraft settings.