[erichurkman]

This is why I use separate accounts for different things. Bill pay is a separate account. Direct deposit is a separate account. I have an account I _only_ use for writing paper checks (rare these days).

It's a pain in the ass, but a long time ago an employer errantly clawed back a full month of payroll direct deposits from me instead of another employee. The bank couldn't/wouldn't help, and the company's payroll was handled by a third party who was not helpful at all.

[petejansson]

How do you move money among the accounts? I like the idea of using multiple bank accounts as financial firewalls for my money, but it seems difficult or expensive to move the funds, especially if the accounts are not all at the same institution.

[erichurkman]

ACH transfers (aka bill pay in some banks), most regular payments out of account X also have a corresponding transfer ~5 days prior from a main cash account to account X.

It's not flawless, but it is insulation against ACH fraud, both electronic and forged checks/e-checks (I've been hit by both before).

It also makes it nearly impossible to use most budgeting softwares out there, aside from battle-tested Excel.