• Here they just let your balance go below zero (or below the maximum negative balance if you have that enabled on your account), and you get a notification to please make sure your balance is above the limit within X days or they will block any pending payments. The only charge is whatever the interest rate is you pay for a negative balance, so depending on the amount it could be a few cents or so.

    Cheques haven’t been a thing in Europe for over 20 years or so, but back when we had them they were guaranteed up to a certain amount. Basically, they would never bounce as long as the amount was under the limit. This also meant that no one would accept a cheque over that limit, in which case you just wrote multiple cheques (the bank would only give you a limited number of them at a time, IIRC it was 10 for a standard account).

    • A lot of us in the US still pay rent in checks. I get them from my bank in books of a hundred, and there’s no upper limit on how big they can be.

      Anything that risks bouncing requires getting a fancy check (certified) where they take the money out before issuing the check.