The consequences of bank account abuse

Banks, credit unions and other financial institutions in Texas are on the lookout for applicants that may have a record of bank account abuse. If you are marked as having mismanaged your bank account on a consumer report, many banks and credit unions will not do business with you. Additionally, account abuse can involve transgressing laws governing bank fraud and could open you up to legal consequences. According to Bankrate, account abuse occurs when a person who owns a bank account mismanages the account. Banks consider an account mismanaged when the account holder writes checks for more money than is present in the bank, also known as an overdraft, and does not pay the overdraft amount. Other forms of mismanagement include depositing a check multiple times or consistently depositing checks for money that cannot be collected. In spite of these examples, there is no clear standard to determine account abuse. An incident or two of depositing a bad check might not rise to the level of account abuse. Even if some mismanagement persists, some banks may not mark the account holder as abusive. However, banks do tend to consider these activities abusive if the account holder does not pay for overdrafts. Not only can a person be flagged as an account abuser and lose access to many financial institutions, but there may be legal repercussions as well. Writing a check for money that is not in your account is considered a form of bank fraud and can expose you to criminal charges, although according to credit.com, a person is usually charged for writing a bad check if there was a deliberate intent to commit fraud and not if it was done in error and the account holder paid for the check in a timely manner. Nonetheless, people may still be charged for writing bad checks for small amounts of money, typically in the form of misdemeanor charges for amounts below $500. Since account abuse can involve such legal consequences, it is crucial to deal with allegations of bank account abuse as soon as they appear.