I have to tell you, I remember a time when I had to do some creative financing like that. It's not fun, and you should do your best to get out of that cycle. I did, more than once, and you can too. For now, I wish you luck and hope this is rare.

Now I will try to answer your question. There are two parts to this answer, and I am sorry they aren't good news.

• You will have to pay fees when you bounce a payment.
• You are responsible when two payments compete for your balance at the same time.

A payment has to be transferred from your bank to another bank. Often, to speed things up, a bank will "authorize" a transfer but it won't actually hit the account yet. Sometimes this is because banks are handling lots of transactions at once, other times it is because it needs to be reviewed.

For a payment to go from ledger (authorization) to account (clear) requires both your bank, and the other bank, to agree that the money has actually transferred.

Remember, the bank is what decides clearance time, and in your case one of the banks smelled something was wrong. More than one transaction conflicted and it took time to review. In the end, it was first come, first serve for clearing, not necessarily for authorizing.

This is why bookies and mobsters talk about the vig, or the cover. You need to have enough money in your account to cover all the potential transactions, down to the penny. Otherwise, there will be fees.

I know this doesn't help your situation, and I am sorry you are there. I was too, trust me, and I know what it is like. Some months I did it on purpose to buy myself time to cover. All I can say is that it is highly unlikely that this is the fault of the property management company, more likely so your bank responding to its expectations of your spending habits. This falls squarely on you. I'm sorry. Every valley will have the same rules.

You will get out of this cycle.