A line of credit or a reasonable balance in the account can keep you out of this mess.

Most of my ad-hoc financial transactions are done with a credit card or cash. I always pay it off every month, and the risk, except the first $50, belongs to the bank.

Not always, Mark.

I had a problem about 20 years ago, where I went in to my bank and made a deposit IN CASH.

Some days later, a check written against that deposit bounced. I had the deposit receipt that showed my balance sufficient to cover it. The bank, however, didn't bother to actually post the deposit to my account for over a week.

The bank still charged me a bounce fee (as did the people who the check was written to), and dismissed the whole incident by saying "you should have made sure you had the money in the account when you wrote the check".

The receipt in my hand notwithstanding.

Banks are either evil or incompetent, and with the way things are going lately, I'm siding with evil.

Banks are evil. Credit unions are a little better. Thanks Amy for posting the link. I've sent it around to my various friends who had B&A during those times.