[Defiant]

The abuse is that they permit the transaction to go through so that they can charge you the $34 on a $2 coffee. If you don't have the money, they should deny the transaction, unless you have agreed to or requested that they give you money even when it is not in your account.

Sure, people should know how much is in their account, but stuff happens, and if they make a mistake, the charges are seriously excessive and designed to give the bank an extra source of revenue, not to protect the bank from the danger of overdrawn accounts and the administrative costs of that.

[ravingnutter]

I understand about the abuse by the bank and it is wrong, but having enough in your checking account to cover checks written falls under personal responsibility. As for “mistakes” I always keep an extra $50 in the account that I don’t figure into the budget...problem solved.