Chase, Wells Fargo, Navy Fed Top Overdraft Fee Offenders List

April 3, 2025 — Press Release

New Data Shows Which Very Large Institutions Will Profit Most if Congress Blocks Relief for Military, Civilian Families

WASHINGTON – Military and civilian families who bank at JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Navy Federal Credit Union have the most to lose if Congress overturns a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule capping overdraft fees, according to new data on the overdraft fees collected in 2024 by banks and credit unions. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a resolution to overturn the rule, which would reduce most overdraft fees to $5.

A new issue brief from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) shows that, among the 10 largest banks, Chase and Wells Fargo stand out, with each raking in $1 billion in overdraft fees in 2024, nearly four times more than the next highest bank. Navy Federal collected $335 million in overdraft fees, millions more than any bank besides Wells Fargo and Chase. On a per account basis, Navy Federal’s overdraft fee revenue was more than 50% higher than Wells Fargo’s and three times more than Chase’s.

“Military families will be especially hard hit if Congress blocks the new rule lowering overdraft fees, as Navy Federal caters to the servicemembers and veterans, and Wells Fargo and Chase both offer military banking. Chase, Wells Fargo, and Navy Federal extract more overdraft fees from struggling military and civilian families than any of the other 10 biggest banks,” said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center. 

The U.S. Senate voted to overturn the overdraft fee rule on a party line vote, with the exception of Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who said, “I do not want to give big banks the ability to charge people outrageous sums of money,” adding that the overdraft rule would “save the average working class household something like $265 a year.”

“Congress needs to decide if it will stand with military and civilian families struggling with high prices, or if it will vote to preserve the abusive junk fee profits of overdraft offenders like Wells Fargo, Chase and Navy Federal. Other big banks like Citibank, Capital One and Ally have no overdraft fees, yet still offer overdraft protection,” Saunders added.

Most big banks have eliminated NSF fees, but Navy Federal Credit Union earned $390 million in NSF fees in 2024, according to its National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) call report. NCUA just published annual overdraft and nonsufficient funds (NSF) fee data for the first time, but new leadership announced that the data will no longer be public, a move criticized by NCUA Board Members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka. 

The CFPB overdraft rule is expected to save consumers $5 billion/year, about $225 every year for the average household that pays overdraft fees. The rule reduces back-end overdraft fees to $5 or the bank’s costs, while allowing safer, more transparent overdraft lines of credit with no price limit. 

Related Resources

• Press release: Nearly Every GOP Senator Votes to Saddle Struggling Families With Excessive Overdraft Fees, March 27, 2025
• Press release: Court Permits Groups to Defend Overdraft Rule, March 5, 2025