Check Your Accounts Frequently

lou | Jan 30, 2013 | 635 posts since 2010

I have numerous online banking and credit union accounts. Generally speaking, I have them send me paper statements if I don't have to pay for the service. I do this because I know it will compel me to look at the account at least once a month. I don't always bother to download my E-Statements.

This month I was looking at a statement for one of my bank accounts and I noticed a $500 withdrawal which I didn't authorize. I called the bank and was told a teller mistakenly pulled the money from my account because of inadvertently switching two digits from someone else's account number. They immediately replenished the account and the $5 service fee I was charged because I was below the minimum.

In all my years, I can't recall this ever happening to me. This experience has reinforced the importance of examining all my accounts at least once a month. Admittedly, I didn't always do this in the past.

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Ken Tumin | Jan 31, 2013 | 5,708 posts since 2009

I also had this happen to me at one of my credit unions. There was an unauthorize debit of around $100. I had an auto email alert set up that emailed me of the debit. I was worried it was due to fraud, but the credit union staff quickly replied that it was their mistake. And they reversed it without any problems. I didn't learn the details about the mistake, but it sounded like an account number mistype. I wonder what would have happened if I waited more 1 or 2 months before complaining.

lou | Jan 31, 2013 | 635 posts since 2010

Ken, I called them 2 weeks after the unauthorized withdrawal. I also wonder what would have happened if I had contacted them after a few months. Fortunately, I spoke to a very competent C/S agent who figured it out very quickly.

51hh | Jan 31, 2013 | 1,650 posts since 2010

This also happened to me one year ago, I was lucky to detect it the same night. I tracked it down to some payee, then the credit union found out the source (same reason: wrong account number). It was like $200 or so.

I am wondering if it is some kind of universal conspiracy with some clerks. For every error like this detected, there must be a hundred errors that go unnoticed; imagine that.

lou | Jan 31, 2013 | 635 posts since 2010

51hh, it's a scary thought. This episode has made me reassess my erroneous impression that banks never make mistakes with your account balances. I am now far less trusting.

niniss | Feb 2, 2013 | 62 posts since 2010

This happened to me last year at one of my local banks (where i maintain a very low minimum balance). One day i got the overdraw charge letter from the bank. When i checked my account online, i saw a $400 debit transaction. Lucky for me, it was a cash withdraw which has the image of the withdraw slip attached. On the slip clearly it has a different person's name and account number. The stupid teller transposed the last 2 digits of the account. I printed the image and took it to the bank along with the overdraw letter. Still, I had to talk to 2 different "officers" at the bank and took them a whole week to remove the fees and refund my money. I was on the verge of telling them that if they worked for me, i'd fire them on the spot.

paoli2 | Feb 2, 2013 | 2,197 posts since 2011

The manager at my local bank told me that if I don't find and report an error "before" I leave the bank, they are not responsible for it. Soooo now I stand at the teller window and recount my money and double check the receipt for accuracy. Recently I found the teller making several mistakes on the amount from checks I was depositing and she insisted it was computer problems. Since when does a computer put in different numbers than what the teller types in?? Sooo I really double check my receipts now for sure.

niniss | Feb 2, 2013 | 62 posts since 2010

Paoli2 - Well, another story of mine will make you realize that even that (double checking the receipt for accuracy before leaving the bank) isn't enough. This happened in my another local bank last year - i wrote the bank a $25k check (to move money out of another falling RCA) and deposited with a nice senior teller who knows me by my first name. Everything was filled properly and the receipt was perfect (i checked before leaving the bank). So i left the bank happy. The next day i checked the account online and to my shocking, the $25k deposit was posted as $250 deposit! I dug the torn deposit receipt from my trash can (lucky that i hadn't taken out the trash) and called the bank right away. The same senior teller wasn't available so i talked to another girl. She was very rude and said she has to forward the issue to another department to research and they will get back with me. A few hours later she called me back and told me that because i didn't put decimal 00 behind the $25k the posting girl thought it was $250. She blamed me for not filling out the digits properly and lectured me that in future i have to make sure to write as $25,000.00 instead of $25,000. I said i understand that but "the receipt i got showed the inital teller recorded the amount correctly and is the receipt not document or bases for the posting?" She couldn't answer. Later that day i got the call from the senior teller whom I deposited my check with initially. She explained that the posting was done separated by another department and the girl in that department just messed it up. She sincerely apologized on behave of the other girl and assured me that the error has been corrected. Anyway, i don't really know or understand how the bank operates. I honestly thought that when the initial teller keys in the data based on my deposit slip and the check the data would be recorded/stored in the system which would be posted as soon as they confirmed the transaction.

paoli2 | Feb 2, 2013 | 2,197 posts since 2011

ninis: Whew! Your post about your situation is scary! You are very fortunate that they got it reconciled for you. I keep all my bank receipts for quite some time for "just in case". However, I have to remember that I can't leave the bank without bringing an error to their attention. Nothing is easy anymore.

niniss | Feb 2, 2013 | 62 posts since 2010

ninis: Whew! Your post about your situation is scary! You are very fortunate that they got it reconciled for you. I keep all my bank receipts for quite some time for "just in case". However, I have to remember that I can't leave the bank without bringing an error to their attention. Nothing is easy anymore.

It is, and the frequency of bank error happening is rather high here in my local banks/credit unions. Come think of it, i don't remember banks ever being this bad when i lived in the midwest. I have to think that it has something to do with the region - quality of education, work ethics, mentality and attitude.