<prompt> Human: I am in the process of purchasing a house, and I wrote a check for 20k as an earnest money deposit to go with my offer. The check was made out to the title company. I did not have 20k in my checking account at the time that I wrote the check; I had to wait 3-5 days for the money to be transfered from a different account. But the realtor assured me that the check would not be given to the title company until I verified that the money had cleared.The money is due to clear into the checking account on Friday. Today I woke up to find that my checking account was overdrawn more than 15k, because the 20k check had been deposited. I tried calling everyone involved. The first person I could get a hold of was the title company. They informed me that not only had they not deposited the check, but they never even received it from the realtor. I finally got in touch with the realtor, and apparently there had been some mix up in her office and - instead of being held to give to the title company at a later date - my earnest money check was put into a file of checks that were to be deposited. What I dont understand is, the check was made out to the title company. How did the bank allow the realty company to deposit a check made out to an entirely separate entity? The realtor assures me they will resolve this and it will not affect the house purchase, which is my biggest concern. Do I have any recourse if it does? Ive never bounced a check before - will there be any repercussions? Could it affect my credit? Is there anything I can do now to try to mitigate any consequences of this?  <response>: Have you gone in to talk to someone at the bank about this? I assume this is something your bank and the realtors bank are going to have to figure out. And if you get charged for anything, I think the realtor should be reimbursing you for those charges since they were the ones who buggered up.Although honestly, you shouldnt be writing handing over cheques that your bank account doesnt have the funds to cover, even if you post-date the cheque because youll be paid in a few days. Post-dating apparently means nothing in the USA, as soon as the cheque is in their hands, they can go and cashdeposit it. 