[nandemo]

*> You've got $16 left for food and then then the Flickr account you forgot to cancel gets charged to your account,

I don't want to be rude but I wonder what set of circumstances leads a poor person to subscribe to a relatively superfluous service (unless you're a pro photographer?) in the first place.

[maehwasu]

Could happen from anything. I've also been poor, and one thing that sent me over the edge was a check that someone waited months to cash. Thought I had $200 in my account, and made a payment with debit card, only to go under $0. What's worse, I wasn't notified, and made a couple more charges, all at exorbitant rates, until I realized what had happen.

As always, it's best to interpret others' comments in the most generous way possible, rather than jumping to the conclusion that the poor person must have been spending too much money to pull himself up by his bootstraps.

[JoshTriplett]

> I've also been poor, and one thing that sent me over the edge was a check that someone waited months to cash. Thought I had $200 in my account, and made a payment with debit card, only to go under $0.

While this isn't something that is directly taught (a checking account ought to come with detailed guidance), if you write checks, you should use your checkbook to track your actual effective balance separate from how much the bank thinks you have. If you write a check, no matter how long ago, you don't have that money anymore, so you can't spend it.

People often don't bother updating a check register each time they write a check, but if you have any serious threat of running out of funds in your account, you need to take the time to balance it to know how much you have.

(Also a great reason to never use personal checks at all.)

But the lack of any guidance in this regard, while supplying many ways to ask for your "current balance" (a complete fabrication once you've written any checks) is certainly one more way banks do nothing to prevent you from falling into a costly trap. I was lucky enough to receive very careful explanations of how a checking account really works when I was young.

[doki_pen]

Good point, but when they are charging 2300% APR, they could afford to give you a call or email you after the first overdraft. They are acting predatory and we shouldn't make excuses for them. All financial relationships in a capitalist system should be mutually beneficial.

[nandemo]

> As always, it's best to interpret others' comments in the most generous way possible, rather than jumping to the conclusion that the poor person must have been spending too much money to pull himself up by his bootstraps.

Honestly, I didn't jump to any conclusions -- perhaps you're not interpreting my question in the most generous way?