The consumer finance site CardHub.com predicted the CFPB would begin treating overdraft protection on checking accounts as a form of credit in 2015, and would begin requiring financial institutions to treat it that way.

The site predicted financial institutions would have to evaluate customers' ability to repay prior to offering them overdraft protection, send them regular statements when they use service and stop automatically using incoming direct deposit to pay outstanding negative balances.

CardHub pointed to the CFPB's 2014 regulations on prepaid cards as an indication of where the agency will move on overdraft protection.

The site's forecasts appeared in the site's Credit Predictions for 2015 report, which it released Wednesday.

The site also said interest rates on credit cards could rise in 2015, but not more than one or two percentage points. Credit will become more generally available as the economy continues to improve and financial institutions seek the means to gain more interest income, the report said.

Increased credit availability will help push the nationwide credit card balance to more than $60 billion in 2015, the report said. Outstanding credit card balances are currently projected to hit $54.8 billion by the end of this year.

Cardhub also said cards equipped with EMV chips will become steadily more available and used in 2015, but that data breaches and card data thefts would continue nonetheless.

Instant Insights /

CFPB Will Make Overdrafts Credit: CardHub

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