It can happen to anyone, suddenly you realize that you have overdrawn your checking account, and you are left wondering what to do. It can be a real shock to realize that you have overdrawn, but then the fees start piling up, and before you know it you are in a very deep hole.
If you have overdrawn your account, and it is the first time you have done this, you should go to your bank and ask them to waive the charges. If you are polite about this, (meaning sickeningly sweet) you should be able to have the charges drops. Most banks and credit unions do allow customer service representatives to waive the first charge on the account. This does not cover the returned check charges, which you will accumulate with the stores you wrote your checks to.
You should set up to have a cash reserve account available for your account. The best method is to tie a savings account to your checking account. The bank will automatically transfer money from the savings account to the checking account to cover you, when you may overdraw. They do charge a fee, usually between three and five dollars per transfer. You need to make sure that you have money available to transfer in your savings accounts. Some banks offer a line of credit where they will transfer to your checking account in order to cover it. Usually there is a transfer fee, and then interest immediately begins to accrue. The interest rate is comparable to credit cards.
You should avoid using overdraft protection. This is one of the biggest ways that banks make money off of customers. Overdraft protection is when the banks allow you to overdraw your account up to a certain limit, usually $300.00. They will tell you that you are saving money, because you are not being charged the returned check fees. However they will charge you a fee between $18.00 and $25.00 per item that they pay into the negative for. You will also be charged a fee each day for being overdrawn. The notices that this is happening can be slow to reach you, and you may not realize it before your next paycheck. It can cause a spiral, which is hard to break, because with your next paycheck you are only bringing your account into the positive, and it is difficult to get ahead.
You balance your checkbook each month. You should keep a running balance, and go off of that rather than just checking your balance at the ATM. You may make a mistake, but you really should not be overdrawing accounts on a regular basis. If you are you need to look at your spending habits, and cut back so that you are living within your means.