I have various checking accounts at Wells Fargo and use the online payment system from XXXX to make payments by check, which is mailed to the recipient. Recently I wrote a check for about {$2300.00} to my insurance company for a homeowner 's premium. This was to replace policy I had paid for a week or so earlier with a better one recommended at the last minute by the agent. I asked the agent to hold onto the check until I had received a refund from the other policy, and she has kept the new check on her desk. But in the meantime, Wells Fargo debited my account for the {$2300.00}, causing the account to go into overdraft and impose a {$35.00} fee. When I complained, WF reversed the overdraft fee and explained that this type of payment is debited from the customer 's account on the date specified by the customer when the payment is ordered, but that the payment is not forwarded to the recipient until the check is cashed. The representative had no answer for why this should be different from the procedure with a traditional check. In my view, the bank is not at risk in this transaction, because it could simply refuse to clear the check if there were insufficient funds in the account, as it does with ordinary checks. I feel the process is designed to increase the odds of an overdraft for which a fee can be charged. It is similar to the practice of booking withdrawals before booking deposits, even if they come in the same day. This practice should be barred. 
