<prompt> Human: This is not a question for myself; I have never ran into this problem, but Im curious nonetheless as I know people this has happened to.I know people who have ran into situations where they have a certain amount of money in their account, and when a certain transaction goes through, the account is overdrawn, and the transaction is paid on behalf of the bank, leaving the person in the overdraft. That was a really long run-on.Please note, I am NOT referring to debit card coverage, as I know many banks offer consumers the option to allow overdrafts. Im speaking mainly about checksACHs which I know are pre-authorized, but still. Banks will sometimes make the decisions to pay these transactions, even if the money isnt in the account at the time the request comes through.What is the reasoning behind this? Wouldnt a bank rather decline the transaction and not have to worry about if the consumer is going to walk away from the debt? Ive been told that banks will do this based on account history etc, etc., but nobody can really tell me the reasoning behind it, thats what I would like to know.Thanks in advance.  <response>: 36 X millions of customers who overdraft great revenue stream Its safe for the bank because its usually only a few bucks. Maybe 100. Most people will bring their account to a positive balance within just a few days or by the next payday. Its the easiest form of lending they can do and literally costs them nothing. 