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Discretionary Courtesy Pay Disclosure

It is the policy of Beacon Federal Credit Union to comply with all applicable laws and regulations and to conduct business in accordance with applicable safety and soundness standards.

The Agreement and Disclosures provided to you at the time you opened your account with us controls the duties, obligations and rights of the Depositor, the Signatories and Beacon Federal Credit Union, with regard to your share draft (checking) account. The Agreement and Disclosures (and all amendments thereto) and its terms shall control any possible conflict, if any, between any provision of this Discretionary Courtesy Pay Disclosure. A copy of the Account Agreement and Disclosure is available to you on request.

Beacon Federal Credit Union is not obligated to pay any item presented for payment if Your account does not have sufficient available funds. You hold Us harmless for any and all liability which might otherwise exist if We do not pay an overdraft.

What You Need to Know About Overdrafts and Overdraft Fees

An overdraft occurs when You do not have enough money in Your account to cover a transaction, but We pay it anyway. We can at Our discretion cover Your overdrafts in two different ways:

  1. We offer Our Overdraft Protection plan that links to Your savings account or if applicable to Your line of credit.
  2. We also have Our standard Courtesy Pay Service which comes with eligible checking accounts. (Oops checking and Navigation accounts are not eligible for the Courtesy Pay Service).

To the extent permitted by law, You authorize Us to transfer from other accounts You may have with Us to cover checking account overdrafts. Transfers will be made in $50 increments, for a nominal fee. Please see the current fee schedule for information on the applicable fees which will be assessed for this service. These transfers will be included in the federally regulated limit of six (6) transfers per month.

An overdraft line of credit is a loan attached to Your checking account. Instead of Us returning a check and charging fees, You can borrow the funds and pay interest. When you spend all of the money in Your checking account and available funds in Your savings account, You start borrowing against Your overdraft line of credit. Overdraft lines of credit have a limit, depending on the amount that You qualified for when Your loan was approved. You will have to repay the principle plus the interest on any balance as disclosed at the time the loan is approved.

Courtesy Pay Service

Courtesy Pay is not a line of credit. Courtesy Pay is an overdraft service that We may at Our discretion extend to You, that can be used to cover overdrafts when there are not funds available in Your qualified checking account or through Your normal Overdraft Protection Plan. You understand and agree that We may from time to time, pay certain items in order to cover overdrafts, subject to Your then existing Courtesy Pay limit and the amount of the overdraft fee.

At Our discretion and if Your account is in good standing the criteria to qualify for Courtesy Pay is as follows:

  1. Your checking account has been opened for 90 days
  2. You are no more than 30 days delinquent on a loan
  3. You have rectified a negative balance within 20 days
  4. Your total share deposits equal:Tier 2- $500 to $999 = $1000 Courtesy Pay limit
  5. Tier 3- $1000+ = $1500 Courtesy Pay limit
  6. Tier 1- 0 to $499 = $500 Courtesy Pay limit

Under the Courtesy Pay service, We may pay overdrafts up to the outstanding limit. Fees and charges of each paid item will be included in this limit. The overdraft balance will not be included or reflected in the actual or “available balance” of Your account and it will not be provided by a teller, ATM, POS facilities, online services or on Your periodic statement.

Your available balance is the money in Your checking or savings account that’s currently available to make purchases, withdrawals, etc. This balance is used to assess overdraft fees or returned item fees. The available balance reflects any processed and pending transaction and any holds. It does not include any checks You have written that have not posted. The available balance is updated throughout the day with posted or pending transactions, such as getting cash from an ATM or making a purchase with Your Debit Card.

Your balance is the actual amount in Your account and does include holds or pending transactions. For example, if You used Your Debit Card to buy gas late at night, the charge would not actually affect Your balance until the transaction post to Your account (when the gas station processes Your transaction).

Here’s how your current balance is used to calculate your available balance:

Current Balance  Pending Withdrawals/Debits + Pending Deposits/Credits = Available Balance

The fee for each paid overdraft and each NSF/Returned item fee is set forth in our fee schedule. Please see the current fee schedule for information on the applicable fees which will be assessed for this service. There is not a limit on the number of overdrafts paid or fees incurred on any one day.

Fees for paid items – Courtesy Pay Fee or Overdrawn Account Fee (Visa Debit Card)

Fees for items returned unpaid– Returned check fee (NSF) or Returned ACH fee

The Courtesy Pay service covers the following transactions: Share Drafts, ACH debits and Bill Pay.

The Courtesy Pay service does not cover ATM and Point of Sale/Debit transactions, and everyday Debit Card transaction unless You OPT-IN to the program for these types of transactions. If You OPT-IN and later change Your mind, You may OPT-OUT by writing to US at the address in this Agreement or by calling Us at the telephone number shown in the Agreement and informing Us of Your intention to OPT-OUT.

You understand that if we pay an item it will be cleared in the order that it was presented to or received by Us, regardless of the amount and in accordance with Our normal operation procedures. You further understand that transactions may not be processed in the order in which they occurred and may impact the total amount of fees incurred.

The Credit Union processes ACH credits first, ACH debits in the order they are received, checks are cleared in the chronical order they are received and ATM or one time debits (if you have OPTED- IN) are processed as they are presented throughout the day.

Courtesy Pay is offered as a service and a convenience to members for incidental overdrafts. We do not encourage You to overdraw Your account. We encourage You to manage Your finances responsibly. There may be other alternatives that would be less costly to You. You may OPT-OUT of the Courtesy Pay service at any time by notifying Us at the address or telephone number shown in the Agreement. We may require that any verbal OPT-OUT be confirmed in writing. You understand that by OPTING OUT of this service, the Credit Union may refuse to pay any check or item that is presented against an insufficient balance on Your account and You will be responsible for any NSF/Returned item fees. You are still responsible to pay any overdraft, even if You OPTED-OUT of the service.

You agree your overdraft balance, including applicable overdraft fees, is due and payable on demand. If there is more than one owner on an account, all owners are jointly and severally liable for repayment of the overdraft balance. If You fail to repay Your overdraft balance after a period of time, We may immediately suspend the Courtesy Pay service. Accounts may be closed for failure to repay overdraft balances and We will report account closures to consumer reporting agencies.

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