How do you deal with a repeatedly overdrawn bank account?

Keep better track of your running balance to avoid overdrafts in the first place. Once you have been hit with a cascade of overdraft fees, you must stop making withdrawals or payments from that account until the fees are paid (i.e., sufficient funds deposited to cover the fees).

Several problems people run into:

- Not keeping a running tally of debit card purchases and automatic/online payments as you would a check written by hand

-Forgetting that not all of a deposit is immediately available, just the first $100.

-Restaurants, bars, and gas stations put a hold on a larger amount of money, and when you settle your final bill, the hold is not released for several days, leading to a lower amount of available money than your total balance would indicate.

-Mailing checks to pay bills on the assumption that the money will be there by the time the check is cashed. Technically 'playing the float' is a form of check-kiting, and is illegal.