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Home >> Checks/Money Orders >> Checks You Wrote
Writing Checks with No Funds
I'm on Social Security and occasionally I have to write a check right before I get my SS deposited to my account, that I know won't clear. I had $5.00 in my checking account and a $4.00 check I knew was coming and would be covered. A $44.00 check I wrote, that I knew would not clear, came in at the same time as the $4.00 check, and they bounced them both.
Is there anything I can do about this? Is it ethical? Is it wrong? I'm paying $30 for a $4.00 check that there was money to cover.
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 Regardless of the need, it can be considered a misdemeanor or felony to give someone a check when you don't have funds to cover it in your account.
When your bank bounces your checks, you can deposit funds to cover them or pay to get the checks back from the people to whom you gave them. You can also ask the bank if it will consider refunding all or part of its fees, if this was your first overdraft and you explain you made an error. The bank won't be obliged to make the refund, but might do so.
It posted the $40 check first (it's becoming common for banks to post larger checks first), so the smaller check was also presented against insufficient funds. You might have a legal argument that the $4 check should not have been bounced, but it would cost you a lot more than it's worth to pursue it.
The bank did not do anything wrong, if it accurately explained how it posts checks and what its fees for overdrafts are. On the other hand, you already know that you wrongly wrote and delivered the $44 check, because you knew you didn't have money to cover it. Chalk this up to a learning experience, accept your own responsibility for writing the bad check, and try not to repeat the experience.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 6/30/10
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