CHASE BANK - BANK ONE Extreme ripoff, punishment too great for bounced check, Internet

It really is too hard to remember your outstanding checks, debits, ach transfers etc. Your wife has probably learned her lesson, but really the easiest way, as others have mentioned before, is to write down every transaction in your check register. If you don't use a check register, then use some sort of accounting software.

If you or your wife like to spend down to the final dollar like your post suggests, then put in enough to have a small cushion for just those types of "unexpected" expenses. The best way to avoid any fee is keep your own running balance in a separate location not associated with the banks online transactions so you can cross check your balances with the bank's balances. Once you get in the habit of doing this, you will never have a NSF fee or any other type of insuffient funds fee.

BTW, you must have not signed up for the 'overdraft protection' and that is why they did not pay the check. IMO not signing up is a good thing, but you now know what they are going to do: not pay the draft and still charge the fee. So it is more important than ever to keep an accurate record of your balance. Its not the banks job to keep your actual balance (prospectively), their job is to keep a record of the transactions presented to them and notify you of your balance retroactively. There is always a lag time between what you know your balance to be and what the banks record is showing.

No, I do not work for a bank or financial institution. I am your everyday average joe that hates to pay fees to anyone so I keep a close watch on my accounts and keep a register so I don't have to pay any fees. I also have a small cushion in case I make a small error in my math.

Okay first of all apparently you or your wife have never heard of a register.  Because if you had you would have never made a statement like this.

My wife wrote a check for $8.00 from her checking account, and it took longer than expected for the recipient to cash it, so she temporarily forgot about it,

- You see IF you used a register and wrote that check down in it when she wrote it there would be no "forgetting" about it.  This not only goes for checks but ANY transaction you make.  On-Line, Phone, ATM banking does not know about a transaction you make until they receive it.  And while most transactions you make on your Debit Card will show up very quickly, due to various factors it could be up to several days before some debit card transactions show up.  Then of course for checks you are relying on the person to deposit the check, which as you found out you can not guarantee when that will be.

 but Chase did not cover the check.

- Okay banks have always had the right to refuse checks AND charge a Returned Check fee, that is not the "new" banking I am refering too.  In the recent past(even up to a couple of months ago) it would have been very likely that they would have covered the check and assessed an Overdraft fee.  But you see a fraction(and it was really a small fraction) of people who refused to manage their account complained and got it so the banks now give people the option if they want overdraft protection.  So unless you "opt in" if you do not have enough money in the account to cover a particular transaction they will decline it at the point of sale.  Now, this in itself is not a bad thing. 

The new regulations only cover Debit Card and ATM Transactions, so they would not even have applied in this case.  But because they have the right to either pay or decline the check(at their option).  It is very unlikely that they(or any bank) is going to continue to cover checks in a majority of the cases.  Instead they are playing a bit more "hardball" in deciding if they are going to pay a check or not.  So if you want someone to blame, then blame the other irresponsible people.  Who think it is the banks responsibility to tell them when they are out of money instead of them taking personal responsibility over their own account.

Now, it could have been worse for your wife depending on who she wrote the check to.  If she wrote the check to something like a credit card, they will also charge you a returned check fee.  In addition to that if you are late because of that you will get hit with a late fee and additional interest.  If this was written to a store they have the right to charge you a fee as well on top of the amount of the check.  But a lot of stores instead of dealing with it themselves are turning the check over to the local District Attorney and letting them collect on it through a "Check Restitution Program". 

No doubt my wife has learned her lesson to watch her balance very closely and to remember every check she has written until it clears

- Again the best way to "remember" is to keep a written register of ALL of your transactions.  It only takes seconds to write the transaction down and subtract it from your available balance.   I can just about guarantee you that you and your wife have taken longer dealing with the after effects than it would have to keep a register in the beginning.