Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

The Card Game – Overspending on Debit Cards Is a Boon for Banks – NYTimes.com.

Some banks further increase their revenue by manipulating the order of a customer’s transactions in a way that causes more of them to incur overdraft fees.

You’re damned right they do. I’ve had that happen to me many times. They ALWAYS put debits through before credits, even if the actual order didn’t happen that way. Sometimes if you check your online banking, you’ll see your deposit, and then later you’ll see that they’ve slipped in a charge BEFORE the deposit, even though it took place after and you SAW that there was nothing before it earlier. It’s total bullshit.

That said, I’m amazed they failed to mention ING Direct’s Electric Orange Checking, which carries a $250 overdraft protection that charges interest, not unlike a credit card (or line of credit). You pay interest when your account is below zero, instead of paying obscene fees. This seems like a better way to do it, at least from the consumer’s perspective – the consumer pays a fair, non-abusive fee for the overdraft service.

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