I recommend reading https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-business-of-check-cashing/ https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-business-of-check..., parti

I recommend reading https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-business-of-check-cashing/ https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-business-of-check..., particularly the section "Depositing a check requires an extension of credit": > If something goes wrong in this process—the overwhelmingly most likely one is that the payer doesn’t have the funds to cover the check (NSF, or “insufficient funds”), but the check being fraudulent or unauthorized is also possible—that wrongness may not be discovered before money “moves” to your bank. And so that payment can be recalled from your bank to the bank the check is drawn on. This will likely result in the bank attempting to recall the money from your account. > And so by presenting your check, which you think is substantially terminating a transaction, you are actually creating a new credit extension with your bank. They are extremely aware that you just asked them to advance you money, even if you are not aware that you did that. They already partially underwrote this extension of credit; that is why you were not shooed out of the building when you originally asked for a checking account.