I've been working on a blog post, "overdrafts in the digital age," for a few days. But it's ballooning to the point where I may turn it into a full Online Banking Report. Or just publish it in several parts here.

Either way, I'm looking for examples of new approaches to overdraft protection. For example, Bank of Internet recently did away with the fee altogether on its Rewards Checking account. The bank won't necessarily honor the check (unless the user is covered by linked-account overdraft protection), but they won't charge a fee if they give it the heave-ho (note 1).

The account also boasts no monthly fee, an APY up to 1.25% (if electronic transaction minimums are met), an ATM fee rebate, Intuit's FinanceWorks PFM with Cardlytics-powered cash-back, mobile remote deposit (Mitek-powered, I presume) and Fiserv's POPmoney P2P payments. It's like a Finovate greatest-hits account.

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Bank of Internet homepage features Rewards Checking (27 Sep 2012)

Rewards checking landing page (link)

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Note:
1. Bank of Internet won't impose a fee, but the merchant who submitted the check (and who will be dinged by their bank) very likely will. So it's not necessarily a fee-free event.
2. For info, our report on fee-based online services (subscription, May 2011)