American consumers handed over about $11.45 billion in overdraft fees to banks in 2017 which was about $10 million more than 2016's numbers, according to USA Today. Notably, this only includes the most prominent banks with over $1 billion in managed assets and excludes smaller banks and credit unions. Today's legal landscape means that banks are allowed to let a transaction go through even if it would cause an overdraft rather than denying the sale. Additionally, most banks will not post transactions in order of smallest to largest which could reduce the number of fees incurred by debit card users by allowing only the largest purchase to go over the balance rather than several.
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