In Australia in 2010 I got a debit card for the first time in my life. The card would simply reject transactions. “As should be”, I thought. It was a revolution for me.

Revolut, Simple, and Chime, the three online only banks I have tried, all do (or did) this. It really helped back when I was living paycheck to paycheck.

For what it's worth; I banked with Simple for the better part of 10 years, but then they acquired by BBVA who was then acquired by PNC. That meant that all Simple customers had to go through account migration twice this year, and in the end now have all the typical fees associated with traditional accounts. Ultimately I decided to move to a local credit union.

Yeah it's been a ride.

I moved to One Financial, but I've kept a local credit union account as well. This probably makes no sense, but then again it's ok to feel conservative about banking.

It's worked out for me so far. The local credit union is one block away. I have not used it but there are no fees to just park money in a checking account.

I still don't know what happpens to such retail banking as interest rates go negative.

Some banks allow you to "turn off" overdraft protection. Of course it's enabled by default.

Who on their right mind would rather me charged $30-40 instead of having your card be declined?

Not me, so I try to turn off any such things when I create a bank account

In capitalist West bank robs you.

NICE