§ 11504 Payment Order Processing Sequence

• •Banks can pick the order to take money out of your account.
• •If you don't have enough money, the bank's order might cause some payments to bounce.
• •When money is taken out, the oldest money in your account gets used first.

You have $100 in your bank account. You write two checks: one for $20 to pay for groceries and one for $80 to pay your electric bill. The bank can choose to pay the $80 check first, even if you wrote the $20 check first.

The bank can process your payments in any order, which might cause the $80 check to go through first. If there isn't enough money in your account when the $20 check is processed, it might bounce.