Watch out! I caught my bank in an overdraft error the other day.

[eeyore]

So i looked at my online balance last week, and I noticed that I had about $170 in overdraft/returned check fees. I knew that there was a deposit pending that would cover the incoming debits, so I went down to the bank to ask them what gives? They very kindly printed out my transaction history, and it clearly showed that I had enough money when the aforementioned overdrafts occurred. The computer had freaked out somehow and registered the debits as overdrafts.

About five days and many phone calls later I had my money back. The manager who investigated it completely agreed with me, BANK ERROR.

Watch out kids, the computers can lie! And if you don't call them on their shit they win!

[Uben]

1. I had that happen, too

...except my overdrafts resulted from a check I had deposited from an insurance company. The bank had accepted the check for deposit, but then realized it was not co-signed by the auto body shop that did the repairs on my vehicle. Since I repaired the vehicle myself, the check was legitimate, and I finally convinced the bank to rescend all overdraft charges, and they called all the businesses where they had returned the checks and told them it was a banking error. It didn't happen without incident, though. I had to get loud and belligerent with a bank vice-president before he admitted I was right and they were wrong. I switched banks, but left $3.65 in that bank for ten years so they would have to send me a statement every month! Bastards!

[KharmaTrain]

2. It's An Old Trick...

I used to catch the bank with this all the time. Here's the deal. You can deposit money the same day you write a check and guess which one gets to the bank first. Nope, it's not the deposit. In a few cases, I found them sitting on the deposit through a monthly "rollover" period so they wouldn't have to pay interest on my account...they'd holding it off the books for upwards of 48 hours (and probably longer if I hadn't jumped on their asses). In the meantime, I had two checks go NSF and they had the gall to charge me an overdraft. Other times I learned while a deposit was made a previous day, they first counted the debits on the account before they put in the deposit...meaning, they'd get my deposit on Monday at 4pm and their sign said it wouldn't be added to my account until the next day. What they didn't say is that it would be added at the end of business on Tuesday and any checks that they processed during the day wouldn't be covered. Long stories short, I no longer do business at that bank, and their own greed forced them to be bought out and that particular branch was closed.

I'm carefully watching my statements these days. I've read plenty on the "internets" and heard from friends of mysterious charges showing up on their statements...fees and other "service charges" that appeared out of nowhere. Right now these people are trying to squeeze every last penny to cover their assets, and with little regulation for so many years, I suspect they're trying one last "fast one" to keep from going insolvent.

[Maine-ah]

3. I fixed that problem with my bank a while ago.

I don't deposit checks. I make them cash the checks, then I deposit the cash. Cash is immediately available, and anything I have that is outstanding is covered. The tellers at the bank (small, local bank) have known me for years, now they just save a step and deposit my checks as cash. :hi: