Is Chase's Overdraft Fee "Opt-In" Purposefully Confusing?

Reader Victor, a former WaMu customer who wasn’t exactly pleased to end up with Chase, thinks the bank’s Federal Reserve mandated on-line overdraft fee “opt-in” form is purposefully confusing. He’s sent a screenshot so you can take a look for yourself.

Victor says:

So my wife got an email today talking about the changes coming to our Chase account (well, WAMU, but we unfortunately inherited Chase). The email is REALLY confusing and tells that you can opt out of debit overdraft coverage, but adds other stuff that’s confusing and makes it SEEM like you’ll be charged an overdraft fee whether or not you opt out of overdraft coverage. It really confused my wife. Not happening until August automatically. Not good enough for me. I logged in to opt-out today.

Here’s where it gets better. Instead of a simple “opt out” yes/no, Chase has added TWO questions, with opposite answers necessary. The text below the first “Yes/No” seems to be explaining the first Yes/No, when in fact, it’s talking about the second. The first Yes/No is COMPLETELY unnecessary, and I think just put there to bamboozle people into selecting “Yes” on the overdraft coverage below.

What do you think?

Hmmmm. I see no reason for Chase to try to make it simple and straighforward for their customers to get out of a huge source of income for the company. Are they trying on purpose to make it confusing? Let’s ask the internet.

What do you think? Scroll down to look at the screenshot.


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