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As somebody who used to have this problem, I discovered that most banks allow you to go up to $100 in the red (without overdraft protection), just to capitalize on these kinds of fees. I also discovered that you can ask them to turn this "feature" off. Of course, that means that if you're really in a bind you won't have the luxury of intentionally going into the red...
I am also somebody who completely destroyed his credit the first chance I got... I've been paying the consequences for six years, and I'm finally almost in the clear. Pay your fees, it's not worth it. If you don't like the way your bank does business, find a small, local credit union that does business the way you like. I recently switched to a USAA checking account, and I absolutely love it, the guys are fair and honest and post every transaction to your account almost immediately, including pending transactions, so you can see online how much money you actually have within, say, 15 minutes of the transaction. They don't do the thing where they take out the largest first to get the most fees.
Of course, all of the above means nothing for offline transactions... you can still go over when the business doesn't check your balance online, or when the business doesn't post transactions right away. This is most common at gas stations.
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I'm swimming in the digital residue of a media-drenched world. It's too cold.
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