Most big banks have done this for a while and only recently abandoned or are abandoning the practice. I anticipate a large class-ation suit and payout within the next few years, because they took this to wildly abusive levels. For example a few years ago I went out one day and made 2 small (<$10) debit card purchases, passed an ATM of my bank and made a cash deposit, and then made a larger purchase an hour later (which was why I had deposited the cash, as I had a low balance). Chronologically this was all good, but thanks to transaction re-ordering I got hit with $105 in fees (#35 x 3).* I got it reversed, but the sad fact is that for a long time the transactions shown on your account and your available balance were treated as fictions to be re-arranged at the bank's convenience if doing so would yield fee income.
* eg for illustration, though I don't remember the specifics:
a. starting balance $30
b. debit card -$10 = $20
c. debit card -$10 = $10
d. cash deposit +$60 = $70
e. debit card -$65 = $ 5
Which all looked fine at the time (eg checking recent transactions and available balance at ATM following deposit), but 24 hours later the transactions had been reordered from smallest to largest and my account looked like this:
a. starting balance $30
e. debit card -$65 =-$35
A. Overdraft fee! -$35 =-$70
d. cash deposit +$60 =-$10
b. debit card -$10 =-$20
B. Overdraft fee! -$35 =-$55
c. debit card -$10 =-$65
C. Overdraft fee! -$35=-$100
I wish I were making this up, but sadly not. I was just lucky enough to have the smarts and time to go into a branch and browbeat a manager into getting the charges reversed. However, my understanding is that millions of people have been ripped off by this trick in recent years.
Most big banks have done this for a while and only recently abandoned or are abandoning the practice. I anticipate a large class-ation suit and payout within the next few years, because they took this to wildly abusive levels. For example a few years ago I went out one day and made 2 small (<$10) debit card purchases, passed an ATM of my bank and made a cash deposit, and then made a larger purchase an hour later (which was why I had deposited the cash, as I had a low balance). Chronologically this was all good, but thanks to transaction re-ordering I got hit with $105 in fees (#35 x 3).* I got it reversed, but the sad fact is that for a long time the transactions shown on your account and your available balance were treated as fictions to be re-arranged at the bank's convenience if doing so would yield fee income.
* eg for illustration, though I don't remember the specifics:
Which all looked fine at the time (eg checking recent transactions and available balance at ATM following deposit), but 24 hours later the transactions had been reordered from smallest to largest and my account looked like this: I wish I were making this up, but sadly not. I was just lucky enough to have the smarts and time to go into a branch and browbeat a manager into getting the charges reversed. However, my understanding is that millions of people have been ripped off by this trick in recent years.