Wescom Central Credit Union in Pasadena, California, has eliminated non-sufficient funds fees on checking accounts effective Aug. 1.

The $6.5 billion-asset credit union said it understands that there may be situations where members face an emergency expenditure, a deposit that did not occur when expected or a member’s accidental miscalculation of the amount they have available to spend.

“At Wescom, we believe in doing what is right for our members – they always come first,” said Ralph Bautista, Wescom’s vice president of deposit operations, in a press release. “With this in mind, we have decided to no longer participate in this outdated and unpopular practice of charging a fee for a transaction that did not create an overdraft balance.”

Some financial institutions charge a fee of $12 or more per transfer for those services.

Wescom offers other overdraft options for members too, such as setting up another share or loan as an overdraft source at no cost to the member.

In the wake of the pandemic, several credit unions slashed or eliminated some fees to help members who had been impacted by the subsequent economic downturn.

One of those was Embold Credit Union in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Embold’s President and CEO Aaron Goff told Tyfone the $614 million-asset credit union cut its NSF fee from $27 to $12 in March of 2020 as a concession to the pandemic’s impact and ended up leaving it at that level.

“The initial impact was about a 50% reduction in NSF fee income, but I do believe it has helped us in growing checking accounts,” Goff said.

Total fee income for Embold through the second quarter of 2024 was $867,000 compared to $845,000 a year earlier.

For Wescom, fee income was $6.1 million through the first two quarters of the year. At the same time last year its fee income was $6.4 million.

“The initial impact was about a 50% reduction in NSF fee income, but I do believe it has helped us in growing checking accounts.”

 – Aaron Goff
CEO
Embold Credit Union