As 2020 comes to an end, the $600 promised by the federal government — poised to begin appearing in bank accounts soon — is welcome news to millions of needy Americans whose finances have been devastated after nine months of economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. But for people whose bank accounts are overdrawn, whether they get their hands on the money depends on what the country’s banks decide to do, the New York Times reported. Banks hold this power because, for a vast majority of people, the stimulus money will be deposited in the same bank accounts in which they also receive tax refunds. In the past week, the largest United States banks have pledged to temporarily zero out their customers’ negative balances so they can get access to their stimulus money and put it toward whatever expense seems the most pressing. Negative balances typically include the various fees that banks tack on to customers’ accounts for letting the customers withdraw more money than they have.
