<prompt> Human: Im reading all these stories of people who are thousands of dollars in the hole. Can somebody explain how this happens? When I was a teenager I went to McDonalds and my card was declined because I didnt have enough funds to pay for my big mac. So what gives? Shouldnt any payment made without the funds be automatically declined?Assistant: If you have overdraft protection or whatever your bank calls it, theyll pay the transaction and charge you a late fee. In fact, some banks will helpfully reorder your transactions, but in reality they are just trying to maximize the number of late fees they can collect from you.Another way this happens, if you dont have this on: You run your Big Mac, but forget about the checks and automatic payments not debit, but directly to your checking account you have outstanding. Some banks have it in your agreement that even without overdraft protection, those will be paid, so your Big Mac goes through because the transaction authorized successfully, but you go negative because the other transactions process anyway.Human: If you have overdraft protection or whatever your bank calls it, theyll pay the transaction and charge you a late fee. In fact, some banks will helpfully reorder your transactions, but in reality they are just trying to maximize the number of late fees they can collect from you.It sounds like Overdraft Protection is a terrible thing then.Assistant: It sounds like Overdraft Protection is a terrible thing then.It sounds like overdrafting your account is a terrible thing then.Human: It sounds like overdrafting your account is a terrible thing then.Then why not just stop the payment from happening instead of allowing it to go through and charging ridiculous fees? It sounds like this is just a method for banks to prey on poorelderly people.  <response>: There are penalties on bounced checks to stop people from writing bad checks, which leave the recipient holding the bag and potentially screwed. The penalties arent really enough to stop this practice which is why most businesses dont take checks anymore. Your landlord, ISP, utility company will all be very displeased if your payment fails to process as expected. 