single monthly fee for an unauthorized overdraft, they now charge per day. They also allow a 'grace period' where an account holder can pay money in before 2:30pm on a weekday before any items are returned. Alliance & Leicester formerly had a buffer zone facility (marketed as a "last few pounds" feature of their account), but this has been withdrawn. In general, the fee charged for an informal request was between £25 and £30, along with an increased rate of debit interest. The charges for cheques and Direct Debits which were refused (or "bounced") due to insufficient funds were usually the same as or slightly less than the general overdraft fees, and can be charged on top of them. A situation which has provoked much controversy is the bank declining a cheque/Direct Debit, levying a fee which takes the customer overdrawn and then charging them for going overdrawn. However, some banks, like Halifax, had a "no fees on fees" policy whereby an account that goes overdrawn solely because of an unpaid item fee will not be charged an additional fee. 2020 reform In 2019 the FCA announced that the overdraft market was being reformed with effect from April 2020. This reform introduced the following measures Arranged and unarranged overdraft rates to be the same End to daily charges rate to be an APR Introduced guidance on refused payment fees to bring in to line with actual costs Identify customers in financial difficultly and work with the to reduce overdraft usage Legal status and controversy In 2006 the Office of Fair Trading issued a statement which concluded that credit card issuers were levying penalty charges when customers exceeded their maximum spend limit and / or made late payments to their accounts. In the statement, the OFT recommended that credit card issuers set such fees at a maximum of £12. In the statement, the OFT opined that the fees charged by credit card issuers were analogous to unauthorized overdraft fees charged by banks. Many customers who incurred unauthorized overdraft fees used this statement as a springboard to sue their banks in order to recover the fees. The Supreme Court in 2009 held that the OFT statement was not binding for current (checking) accounts and largely resolved the matter in favor of the banks. United States Consumer reporting and account denial In the United States some consumer reporting agencies such as ChexSystems, Early