A state in which the funds in an account are not sufficient to fulfill the obligation of the account holder.
When there are not enough funds in an account to cover the amount a check has been written for.
This is when a check, purchase, or ATM transaction is charged against an account and there is not enough money in the account to cover it. All financial institutions charge fees when this occurs unless there is some kind of overdraft protection in place. Purposely writing checks when there are no funds to cover them is considered a crime. To beginning of page
The state in which you don't have enough money in your checking account to pay off someone you wrote a check to. There's usually a penalty for doing this, so be sure to keep track of your money by balancing your account.
The term "non-sufficient funds" (NSF) is used in the banking industry to indicate that a demand for payment (a cheque) cannot be honored because insufficient funds are available in the account on which the instrument was drawn. When this occurs the check in question is said to have "bounced".