Overdraft Protection

Avoiding Overdraft Fees and Declined Transactions

Oops! Sometimes you may not realize your account balance has gotten low. To help protect against overdrafts, you can link your MIDFLORIDA savings account or line of credit to your checking account. We'll make a courtesy transfer for you to cover the transaction if you don't have enough money in your checking account.

Courtesy Transfers

• Transfer from a savings or another checking account that you're an owner on

• Transfer from a line of credit

• Courtesy transfers are free with Relationship Checking

Additional coverage for your debit card

Check Advance is an additional service you can add to your account to ensure your ATM and everyday debit card transactions are covered. This option can be added in addition to our standard overdraft protection options.

What is an overdraft and what is the cost?

An overdraft occurs when a payment or withdrawal is made on your account and there isn’t enough money to cover it, and there is no linked savings or line of credit to pull the funds from. When this happens, an insufficient funds fee is charged to your account. In some cases, we will return the item unpaid. In other instances, the item will be paid and your account will go negative. The insufficient funds fee can range from $10 to $30 per item, depending on the type of transaction and how often it occurs. In addition, if your account goes negative, you will have 5 days to bring your balance up, or a negative balance fee may be assessed. (See our fee schedule for specific details.)

Let’s look at an example: If a $100 check is written on your account, and you only have a $40 balance when the check clears, we may pay the check for you and take your account negative by the difference - $60. Also, an insufficient funds fee of $30 would be charged, taking the balance to negative $90. Then, if the balance was not brought back up until 10 days later, the account would incur another $20 in negative balance fees.

6 ways you can avoid overdrafts

1. Emergency fund - Put a little aside in a separate savings account that you can tap into when an unexpected expense comes up. Open a savings account
2. Overdraft protection - Link a savings, checking or line of credit to your account to draw funds from via courtesy transfers. Call the Help Desk or visit a branch.
3. Online banking – Check your account balance anytime by logging into your account on a computer, tablet or phone. Plus, use our free planning tools to track your spending in certain categories and make necessary adjustments. View all the features of online banking and how to enroll.
4. Account alerts – By setting up an account alert, you can be notified when your balance falls below a certain limit. Then you can deposit money into your account to cover upcoming transactions. Learn about account alerts.
5. Text banking – Once you sign up within online banking, you can text the keyword BAL to 64335 to receive your account balance by SMS messaging before you make a purchase. View other keyword commands
6. Account (check) register – Write down your transactions and keep a written account balance in an account register. You can receive these for free at any branch.