Based on the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, Individuals paid $15 billion in overdraft charges final yr. That’s an terrible lot of cash that customers 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 line with new information launched by the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau.

All banks with property over $1 billion should report how a lot cash it introduced in through bounced test and overdraft charges, in line with CFPB. And this yr the business rang up at $11.41 billion. That’s up 2.2% from 2015, which was the primary yr 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 significantly troublesome for cash-strapped Individuals, CFPB Director Richard Cordray mentioned on a press name Thursday.

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