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The answer is not to have a "Check Card". Nothing you have written about the experience indicates a real error on the bank's part. Your account is your responsibility.
I have a traditional MAC card. MAC is what we call ATMs in Pennsylvania, because the first ATM system here called them "Money Access Centers." (The first standalone ATM from a bank was called "George," which may have had something to do with the friendly name of MAC) Check cards are marketed as being "convenient." I do not find it "convenient" to have something that works like a credit card (i.e., requires no additional identification or presentation of even a 4-digit PIN) that will suck all of my money right out of my checking account.
I have the ability to check balances, deposits and withdrawals 24 hours a day, by phone or online. Point of sale purchases with my MAC card show up on my account, often quicker than it takes me to drive home from the store. (The vendor won't show up, but the correct amount does).
It is not your bank's fault that the person that was supposed to direct deposit money to your account did not do so. It is your fault for not checking. Pay up, consider it a lesson learned, and move on.
I have overdraft protection because in the midst of a horrible week in which my best friend died of cancer, I transferred money from checking to savings instead of the other direction by mistake. I had a reasonable story, an excellent banking record up to that point, and an obit ... and still paid $100 in bounced check fees. It happens. And at the time I was living on less than you are currently.
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