safest course of action to avoid overdrawing?

Question

Hi.. what do yall think?? Here's my situation (I'll explain as breifly as possible)

I live on a small stipend and scrape by paycheck-paycheck.. I currently have only about $15 in my account but today is payday. Got my paycheck.. Here's the problem

#1 they never distribute the checks until after 2.00 which is the deadline for deposits to be made to count for that day.

#2. I am leaving on a trip with a choir early tomorrow morning (before banks open).

#3. I HAVE to purchase some things tonight before I go.

One time I deposited my check via the atm (AT THE BANK) in the evening.. THEN AFTERWARD I went and bought some things at the grocery store using my bank card. Well.. I knew my paycheck wouldn't "Hit" right away, but I figured neither would the purchase! But, even though the purchase was made AFTER the deposit, it hit first, the bank hit me with a overdraft charge and REFUSED to take it off, even after I explained the situation

see additional details for my question

what should I do to avoid this tonight? I am planning on depositing my check via ATM this evening. If I write a check for my purchases, should i feel pretty safe that my paycheck will hit (Tomorrow) before the check clears? I'm a bit nervous because this bank has allready shown me that they will hit me up with an overdraft charge anytime they can..

Suggestions??

I'm worried that if they see the check (to the grocery store) tomorrow they will make SURE they count it before they count my deposit for tonight. THat seems to be the kind of bank they are!

and yes I considered changing banks when that whole thing happened, but the people I talked to and told the situation seemed to think that most banks would have a similar policy. (Counting the withdrawls before the deposits so they could get a little extra money in overdraft fees)..

Jerrold J- how does $600 a month sound in today's society when I have to pay for my own food, car insurance, gas and phone?

Answer 1

That is why many companies (here in NY/NJ/PA) use direct deposit as a means of paying. Instead of giving you a live check, the money is electronically routed to your bank account and usually is there on payday, ready to go. Since you don't have that, I would recommend instead of using your bank card to pay for items, use a regular check as it takes longer to process and is sure to clear after your deposit. Another way would be to ask the grocer if they would wait until a day later to deposit the check that you write them.

Answer 2

The short term answer to your problem is to talk to the store where you are buying the things you HAVE to have and tell them what is going on. They should be willing to hold the check for a day or 2 since they also have an interest in the check not bouncing.
The REAL problem is that you are "living paycheck to paycheck" and are spending EVERYTHING you make EVERY week.
To me this is not living but more a "survival" mode. You survived another pay period but what do you have to show for all the work you did? The ONLY thing you accomplished was to get a payperiod older. Where will this put you in 10 years? 20 years?
And food for thought. You do NOT have a "money" problem. Getting a higher income will NOT fix this "life style". You can find people living this way making $6 a hour or $150,000.00 a year. You have a money "management" problem. Until you fix the way you MANAGE money, the amount does not matter.

Answer 3

If the place taking your check does one of those electronic where they copy the check and hand it back (Walmart does it -- I can't think of what it's called), then it's about the same processing time as your debit card and you will probably get hit with overdraft fees.

If you are writing a normal paper check and the store doesn't bank at your bank, you might be okay to float the check for a day.

To prevent this in the future, see if your employer will allow a direct deposit of your paycheck. This would put your check in your account on your payday.

By the way, ALL banks process transactions that way.

Answer 4

Jerold is right. I need to save more. Living like a rock star is fun but Peeing over 1,000 a week living day to day is not the way.