“Checking accounts remain a fundamental financial product for consumers. Nine in 10 Americans have checking accounts and most rely on these accounts to make purchases, pay bills, withdraw cash, or deposit paychecks. Because checking accounts are an essential and widely used product, they need to be safe, fair, and transparent. Unfortunately, the formal disclosure documents outlining these accounts’ fees, terms, and conditions are often long, unintelligible, and opaque. Overdraft and transaction processing practices often result in surprise fees. And dispute resolution terms leave little room for consumers to choose how they want to proceed in the event of a problem. The good news for bank customers in 2014 is that disclosure policies have improved, especially those related to key terms, and there are greater overdraft protections at the ATM. Yet the bad news is that more banks are charging extended overdraft fees and limiting options for dispute resolution.  These are the overarching findings of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ fourth annual study of bank checking account disclosures. Our goal in this report, and the three previous ones, is to determine how consumers are affected by the terms and conditions of checking accounts.”