It was illegal to write a bad check, and businesses are allowed to charge pretty hefty fines if you pass one off on them. I guess the one business that can't is the business that people are expecting to honor their bad checks.

Please clarify:

Are banks supposed to risk their depositor's funds by lending to people who can't repay what they've borrowed and by floating free checking account loans to people who can't be bothered to live within their means? I really cannot fathom what the rules are anymore.

The money that people are borrowing by overdrawing their checking accounts is not the banks' money, and banks are expected to manage their depositors' funds carefully, which doesn't include extending free payday loans to anyone who opens a checking account and then decides to game the system.

I've lived from paycheck to paycheck, and I didn't do it by overdrawing my checking account. But then, my mother raised five children on wages and child support that was about one and a half times the minimum wage, and she did it without having check bouncing privileges extended to her, so please excuse me if I fail to see the wisdom in encouraging that behavior.