Think the overdraft protection on your bank account saves you big overdraft fees on bounced checks? Chances are you didn’t bounce a check but you did overspend with your debit card through purchases and ATM withdrawals which you wouldn’t have made if your bank had refused the transaction for insufficient funds.

According to the report, “Debit Card Danger” by The Center for Responsible Lending, most people when given a choice would cancel an ATM transaction or debit card purchase if they knew it would spend them over their bank balance. Although bounced checks account for about 25% of overdraft fees, debit card transactions account for nearly half at 46%.

Fees charged on overdraft protection accounts cost an average of $2.17 for every dollar borrowed. Check overdrafts cost $0.86 per dollar. It’s easy to see that the banks are not saving the consumer high overdraft fees on bounced checks but rather encouraging overdrafts made with a debit card – overdrafts that the customer might not incur had he been warned the transaction would overdraw his account.