Based on the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, People paid $15 billion in overdraft charges final 12 months. That’s an terrible lot of cash that buyers wasted on pointless and preventable charges. CNN Cash reported:

In 2016, U.S. shoppers paid a complete of $15 billion in charges for bouncing checks or overdrafting — which is when a buyer tries to make a purchase order with out sufficient cash of their account to cowl the transaction — in response to new information launched by the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau.

All banks with belongings over $1 billion should report how a lot cash it introduced in by way of bounced test and overdraft charges, in response to CFPB. And this 12 months the business rang up at $11.41 billion. That’s up 2.2% from 2015, which was the primary 12 months banks started reporting complete overdraft and bounced test charges to the CFPB.

Including in its finest guess for what smaller banks and credit score unions charged, and CFPB says $15 billion is roughly the grand complete.

These charges are notably troublesome for cash-strapped People, CFPB Director Richard Cordray mentioned on a press name Thursday.

“Shoppers dwelling on the sting can discover themselves racking up quite a few overdraft prices,” Cordray mentioned. “Regardless of latest regulatory and business adjustments, shoppers with low account balances and little margin for error proceed to pay vital overdraft charges.”