Bank Responsible for Revoking OD Fees?

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Question:

We have a customer who signed & opted into ODP when he first opened the account in September. After the 45-day qualification period, it was found that his account was eligible for ODP so we activated the ODP on his account. A teller at his branch, however, took a request from him to revoke ODP on his account in late November. This was not relayed to the appropriate staff and the change did not get made on his account. His TV bill, which is an authorized monthly payment, came through on his account as a POS debit while he was already a couple dollars negative. It should've been declined due to NSF and him previously revoking ODP. We've since made the appropriate changes on his account to revoke ODP on his account and we've reversed all the fees he shouldn't have been charged, but the customer is saying he is not going to pay for it, and that the bank is responsible for it. My question is - is the bank responsible for it?

Answer:

Opting out of an overdraft service does not mean your bank is prohibited from paying an item against insufficient funds. Although I personally would bounce NSF items authorized by people who have opted out (same revenue for me either way), most banks just continue to pay or return on an ad hoc basis.

If this was an electronic payment, your customer would have to say the charge was unauthorized or the authorization had been revoked in order to claim harm. He's not saying that. So, the payment was appropriate.