Susan,
I feel your pain. I am an ex employee (supervisor) of the customer service department for TCF. While I agree with the ghuy that rebutted you first, regarding keeping track of your account, it is no one's business to tell you that. Not even the bank's. Tcf "claims" that they put things through in order from the highest to the least, to make the consumer believe that they actually care whether or not your mortgage/rent gets paid before your charge for a big mac at mickey-d's! Banks are a business like any other business and in pursuit of that good old American opportunity, they will crush anyone who will get in their way of the almighty dollar. Therefore, they are going to find anyway possible to charge you for anything they can. I left there on 10/3/05. It is hard to represent a company that will not assist their employees, and I got tired of being called names, and threatened. It was also difficult to defend things you don't believe in yourself.

I asked on a weekly basis for two years for the online to be changed so that the customers see what the reps see on the phone the same way. They will never do it. It's unfortunate. Call them and ask them to help you with those fees. If you have a good rating with your account, they can consider any fees within the last 30 days if you ask. Just ask for a supervisor. The reps will not be able to do it. Good luck!!

you are a victim of check 21, they cash any checks you write immediately, and any deposits of checks you deposit takes days to "clear" if you get paid on Friday, put your check in the bank they hand you a deposit ticket, and you actually think you now have money to spend in your account that you have worked for all week, WRONG
it will take about until Tuesday before you can actually spend that money, especially if you live pay check to pay check. so you go out Friday night buy groceries at Walmart, They can cash your check within hours, or pay the sitter, pay a few bills, all these checks are no good until about Tues or Wed, so now half your check or at least a big chunk is gobbled up in bad check fees, and now you cant pay your bills.

Dont deposit your check, cash your check , get that cash in your hot little hand, then redeposit it as a cash deposit, and it will show up, depends on your bank some shut it off at 2 pm some at 4:30 days business, bank with one that suits your needs, and ask is this my available money to write checks on?

good luck

Sorry, on re-reading your post, I see that you do state that your bank posts largest to smallest. My mistake. I stand by the rest of my comments.

This posting is interesting. You are upset that they post their checks smallest to largest. If you read the bank postings on this site, there are dozens that complain that their bank posts largest to smallest, thereby causing more overdrafts. This just points out that no matter how the bank posts items, it will be to someone's disadvantage and they will be unhappy about it.

You ask if someone can do something about this. The answer is yes... the someone is you. Get your account into balance, and keep track of your funds, and this won't happen. You admit to 'messing up your account'. This isn't the bank's fault. There isn't any financial institution anywhere that won't charge you overdraft fees when you do this.

One thing that might help would be to find a credit union that will do an automatic transfer from a savings account to cover a check. Most do this, and only charge a minimal amount (like $3) to make the transfer and keep you honest. You wouldn't have to have a ton of money in savings, just figure out how much you overdraw by, and keep that much in savings.