> Must be very different banking systems then - that certainly wouldn't happen here!  If you deposit cash into
> an ATM here it won't appear as "available" until it's been physically checked, although the time/date of
> deposit is used for calculations later.  When you get a balance (either at an ATM or online) it shows two
> figures, "Current" and "Available" balances.  The latter is all you can spend!  :-)

I don't see two balances, I'm afraid.  And they seem to take a much
longer time to reflect debits than credits on the ATM (or website) balance!

The net result is that if one isn't EXTREMELY careful to write all
debits/credits
down, the "balance" available is rarely accurate.  I suspect part of this is to
sucker people into spending more than they have, so they can assess fees.

Another trick I've heard of follows:
Say I have $100 in my account.  In the mail in the morning, my bank receives
a check I wrote for $50, one I wrote for $60, and one I wrote for $30.  A "good"
bank would take them in the order written (let's say $60, $30, $50), thereby
overdrafting one check (the $50 one).  Many banks, however, will "rearrange"
them, taking the $60 check, then overdrafting the other two and charging two
fees instead of one.

I think I remember a stink a few years back about this happening, as it is
illegal in some jurisdictions.  IANAL, though, so don't go tromping off to
your bank if you feel something shady like this has happened to you
without more research.

Mike H.

PS- The link above was for a guy who deposited a fake check from a
"work at home" offer.  It was credited to his account and after a couple
weeks of a $95k balance, he withdrew a cashier's check.  A couple
more weeks passed before the bank realized their error, and started to
get frantic about it.  It's quite amusing, and highlights the problems that
can occur in that "no-man's land" of time between a deposit and the
issuing bank receiving the check.  URL was http://tinyurl.com/f1tl
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