Lol! I know what you mean. They're great tips for people who are overspending, but realistically, a lot of us already don't splurge. There's not really anything else for us to cut out!
I think a negative bank account is a little unnerving for anyone. Have a negative bank account is like spending money you don't even have. However I haven't had a negative balance for years now due to me not having overdraft on my account. I take the decline now instead of pre-spending money I don't have. It suck to get a direct deposit and have to cover the negative balance first.
Luckily for me I've never had a negative bank balance. But yeah I've come close to that. There was a time I earned only enough cash to see me through the week. So naturally when I got the money, I'd withdraw it all and wait anxiously for the next week and withdraw all the money again. For some time I had $0 in my bank account. From experience I know it's almost as bad as having -ve balance in your account.
I have had it when I have been charged ~$25 for not maintaining a minimum balance. I have never written any bad checks though. I just never maintained enough money in my account and was charged by the bank repeatedly every quarter or whatever their system was. Now I have a bank account where all you need is a positive balance and there is no charge.
That's definitely not a good situation to be in. You need to budget better, obviously. Paying overdraft fees is just financially dumb and very harmful. Most overdraft fees are upwards up $40 these days. It's a way for the banks to make money. A scam, basically. And a lot of customers fall into that trap way too regularly.
Overdraft fees really make me angry, I don't know how they can possibly be allowed. So I need to pay a fine because I already don't have any money, which leads me to being further and further into debt? There really needs to be a system put into place to prohibit banks from enforcing these fees.
