Rushing to get ahead of a change that kills the business model?
<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ally-bank-kills-overdraft-fees-a-huge-money-maker-for-banks-161940171.html" rel="nofollow">https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ally-bank-kills-overdraft-fee...</a><p>"Ally Bank kills hated overdraft fees — a huge money-maker for banks"
I used it a bit back in college to avoid overdrafts. When living with no income and under 1k in the bank, it was pretty useful.<p>It would predict automatic payments, and allow you to take out a small loan to cover the payment, avoiding about $35 in overdraft fees. And the best part was the payment back was 0% interest, only you couldn't use the service again until you paid Dave back.<p>I'm sure they got their money's worth from banking data after I left it signed in for 5 years. Eventually I deleted my account and unlinked my bank.
> Launched in 2017, Dave is an app used to help Americans avoid billions of dollars in overdraft fees charged by traditional banks.<p>Honestly my bank hasn't charged me an overdraft fee in years. Is that unusual? Is Dave more for unbanked or underbanked folks?
I'm not sure why anyone uses banks instead of just using Fidelity for everything.<p>You get a brokerage, you can have your retirement accounts there, you get free checks, debit card with free ATM access, software that's best in class for finance (even if it's still mediocre compared to consumer software).<p>You can configure automatic bill pay, automatic investments, free money wires to external banks to pay rents, no fees for anything really, no useless savings account or restrictions.<p>Even the phone support is better than any other financial institution I've ever had to deal with.<p>Zero fee total market index funds, no fees really for anything.<p>I think the only reason people don't use them is because they don't know it's an option and they use whatever bank their parents used.
This side-hustle feature is pretty strange with very little info:<p><a href="https://dave.com/side-hustle/" rel="nofollow">https://dave.com/side-hustle/</a><p>There's just something off about finding employment though your bank. Makes me think of living and working in a company town. But I'm probably not the target market at all.
Coincidentally, Channel 4 in the UK broadcast a series called "The Bank of Dave" in 2012 where a resident of Burnley called David Fishwick tried to launch a bank of the same name.<p>They subsequently couldn't get a banking license, and dropped the "Dave" name.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnley_Savings_and_Loans" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnley_Savings_and_Loans</a>
I've had my checking accounts set to deny charges when the balance is insufficient for years. I have played the odds with a floated check before, but it's really not that hard to avoid an overdraft. These days, I just buy everything on a credit card. I earn rewards, and there's no change of overdrafting.