Your bank could be cashing your checks in a way that maximizes bounced-check fees.
Most people think that their checks are debited in the order that they arrive at the bank.
Sometimes that's true. But the trend is to cash the biggest check first. If that check eats up most of your balance, and several small checks follow, most of them might bounce. The banks say they handle the big checks first because they're the most important. But the real reason, says attorney Phillip Gaddy of Albuquerque, N.M., is that more bounced checks mean more fee income for the bank.