As part of a government plan to insure that all financial institutions have enough money in reserve at all times, Regulation D was put into effect. This limits the amount of transactions members can do on non-transactional “share/savings” accounts to 6 per month per account. After that, additional transactions will be rejected and an overdraft fee will be assessed.
While using M.E.L. or Peoples 24/7, you may have tried to move money from one of your share accounts, to either your share draft account or to make a loan payment, and received an error message stating that this service was not allowed. “Why?” you asked yourself, as you had been able to do it before. Chances were that you had exceeded your six transactions per month limit on that share account. Please keep in mind that this is a federal regulation and not just a credit union policy.
Regulation D DOES NOT apply in certain cases however. There are no limits to the amount of transactions that a member can do from their share draft (checking) accounts. Also, Regulation D only limits to six the amount of transactions that a member does for themselves, i.e. via M.E.L., Peoples 24/7, ACH items, overdraft transfers to share draft account, etc. Any transaction that a member does through a teller, either in person or a faxed request, or withdraws from a share account at an ATM does not count against the six per month limit.
Confused yet? I know I was when I first tried to understand this regulation. As always, any questions you may have, please do not hesitate to contact us for additional information or clarification.
