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Well, you can thank congress for it, that's one of the new rules that went in earlier this year (I've had to do a fair amount of work related to it and the rule is going to screw my numbers for the year but it is, as a personal opinion, a good rule).
The OD and low balance alerts already existed at Wells and most banks (and all the major ones so far as I know) have them and frankly, everybody should be subscribed to them. I can tell you from personal experience (that is, from the bank's side) that they are about the best fee avoidance tool banks offer. And if you have a credit card sign up for any "Payment Due" or "Payment not received" alert as well.
As for the rule change I'm very interested to see how it plays out. People hate the fee which is easily avoided by never overdrawing your account but I'll be interested to see how they react the first time their payment is rejected because it'll overdraw their account by a few dollars. I keep the overdraft protection because it would be a very unusual occurrence for me to need and so I'd rather pay the fee and have the charge go through, but anybody who is at regular risk should turn it off and live with the minor embarrassment of rejected payments.
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