Banks are in the business to make money. So are credit card companies. I have NEVER bounced a check, EVER! I have only paid a FEE of ANY KIND on my credit cards, once or twice...I am in my 50's. Banks give you that overdraft protection because they make money off of people who don't have a CLUE on how to keep a checking account. AND if you do by accident bounce a check, only the bank will know, and you will only have a fee at the bank not ANOTHER fee where the check bounced. (or overdraft) ALWAYS keep an extra $100 in the bank. Can't afford to DO that? Don't have a checking account. Deal only in cash. SPENDING MORE than you HAVE is IMPOSSIBLE, with CASH! Times are tough. I don't have a job. I get $30 a week while living with a friend for keeping house and cooking. BELIEVE ME, I have found out I can live off of VERY LITTLE!!

Chase Bank charges $6 per $100 for overdraft fees and I've used it a time or two. Need to balance my checkbook more often if I'm getting the balance down low enough for this to happen. I have paid a fee on my credit card for forgetting to get the money in on time. Now I get email notices and paper bills, both, and keep a calendar with information on when to expect bills. Verizon Wireless lets me have my Discover card pay the bill automatically. Since I pay off the credit card bill in full every month, that helps me out. There are too many fees for keeping a checking account (I have direct deposit and avoid all but the fee for more checks) but it is the best way to prove you've paid when a company says you didn't. And that does happen. Companies make mistakes. You will save money by shopping only with cash but working only in cash means you can't order your printer ink refill from Dell with just a few keystrokes and your credit card number. You just have to be able to pay everything off every month or don't get it in the first place and try to find a bank with the fewest fees possible. I'm 67 and show you can do it even with a checking account and credit cards.

We have overdraft protection linked to a credit card. Because of the way we get paid now, as opposed to the way we got paid a year or so ago, some of our direct transactions occur a day or so before a paycheck is deposited. I found that we could use the overdraft protection with no fees, while transferring money would cost us. It bothers me to go into overdraft (which I then immediately transfer back to the card), but I decided it was cheaper than doing a money transfer. We used to get paid once a month, and so I paid everything off at the first of the month. Now, we get an every-two-week check and some of our creditors still expect payment during the first week or so of the month.