POLL: Banking Error What Would U Do

I would have called immediately and told them. With my bank, if they've made a mistake, they'll credit me $20!! So, I would be able to sleep at night with a clear conscience and made an extra $20 that I don't have to feel guilty about.

Yep, my Mama raised me right!!!

Yes, they will catch it when they reconcile everything. Just call them now so you can have it straightened out.

Even if they wouldn't catch it, to not tell them about it would be stealing, which we all know is wrong.

I'd call.
They're going to catch it anyway, so I wouldn't spend money that's a.) not mine and b.) not going to be there for long.

I'm crazy like that--I give extra change BACK to the store clerks too.

Character is how you act when no O. is watching. :)

Speaking as a former banker, you need to call.

It could of happened for several reasons, a glitch in the system perhaps. Sometimes if there is a hiccup the system will repeat transactions. When IT discovers there was a hiccup they will fix it, and the extra 300 will be removed.

The teller could have ran the transaction twice. That's easy to do too. When she balances her drawer it will be off, she will correct the problem then.

Either way, they are going to figure it out.

I once had a lady come in and throw a complete fit because "the bank" deposited 2,500 in her account which she promptly came in and withdrew. Well happened is one of the colleges in town was depositing a student loan advance. The school messed up and sent it to the wrong account. They realized their error and sent for a reversal. Which we obliged...and it drew the lady's account 2,500 in the negative. Checks started bouncing every which way.

She knew the money wasn't hers, but she took it any way and paid the price.

Same with a woman who deposited 500 and the teller accidentally deposited the check for 5,000. (Admittedly she messed up). When the correction was made she had already withdrawn half. We drew her account negative. The excuse, "Well it was your fault." doesn't work. It's not our fault you took money you knew you didn't have.

See, lots of bad things happen to dishonest people. :)

Call, there are several layers of auditing and it will be caught. I used to work as a teller supervisor, trust me, we have little sympathy for the crying when you withdraw money you knew wasn't yours and caused a bunch of check to bounce when we took the money back.

Oh and they will just take the money back and fire off a letter you won't get for a couple days. Like I said, no sympathy, you know the money isn't yours.

Really guys, how do they find it? That teller is either 300 off on her checks or cash. They will look at all 300 dollar deposits with the specific media and see, clearly, it was done twice so the second will be backed off. If they balance that means someone else was shorted 300 in their account. Now that person will be promptly calling as soon as they realize it. This is not a hard mistake to find and correct.

I love a situation like this. One of the ways I taught honesty and integrity to my kids was by showing them what to do in situations like this.

I would recommend you gather your kids around you and tell them the bank made a mistake when you deposited $300 yesterday and show them what happened. Then take them to the bank and go to the branch manager with your kids and explain the situation to him/her so they can straighten it out. Show them how much $300 is and that even though that is a lot of money you are returning it because it didn't belong to you.

It will be a great learning experience for your kids and a great teaching moment for you. But in this day and age of "Its all about me", be prepared to render first aid if the branch manager faints from shock from your honesty. ;~))

Good luck to you and yours.

I am sorry but rest assured.. they WILL catch it. They WILL remove it from your account without notifying you.

I sure hope you have not used it or are counting on it sticking around.

I run my personal and business financials ethically and I would let the bank know because if the error were in reverse I would want the bank to work with me in getting my funds. My relationship with my bank is more important than seeing if I end up with an extra $300 which is measly if you think about it long term.

Character is how we behave even when no one is watching.

Report it.

I would call and have it corrected. It is the right thing to do, not only for the customer but for the teller. If the teller's drawer shows up with a $300 imbalance she could get in trouble because if your balance sheet says you have $1300 in the drawer and there's only physically $1000 in the drawer, guess who they think took the money? Do the right thing.

Call and let them know
Do not spend it
They will catch their own error and correct your account when they balance the day.
It is not your money
:(

Well, we all know if you keep the money it's stealing, lol. If you let it go, it could take the bank months to catch it. Then when they yank it out you're suddenly short $300 and bouncing checks, cuz they'll let you know after they yank it out, not before. Let's hope they're not jerks and even calculate interest earned and take that back too!

Notify the bank and become the hero.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

Not reporting it will only bite you in the behind sooner or later.
Report the error now and save yourself a headache later on.

A.:

I would call or go into the branch. It's NOT my money to spend.

The honest and best thing to do would be to tell them of their error. It WILL be caught. Why not do the right thing and tell them instead of waiting for them to find it?

they WILL catch it - may as well call and alert them so you don't forget about it and accidentally think it's yours and bounce checks at a later date...

Call for several reasons...1. Because it's the right thing to do, it's not my money 2. I don't want to have to pay it back whether I spend it or not. 3. No matter how much I think many banks are "crooks", I don't want to be lumped into that category with them.

Whether they would eventually "catch" the mistake or not, I would call immediately! I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I knew I had gotten money dishonestly.

They WILL catch it and take it back. Don't spend the $.

Call the bank and report the mistake. You put good out in the universe and good will come back to you. I also believe the reverse is true, so do the right thing.

I'd let them know right away about the error.

I've had friends who have had similar incidences in their accounts and actually spent the money and then had to figure out how to pay it back and in one case it ruined her credit and her ability to get another bank account since banks talk to banks you could find yourself blacklisted. It's not worth it.

I would call right away. That's not my money, no matter how much I wished it to be! :-) A.

I bet it's already been corrected by now. Having worked at a credit union before the tellers have to balance to the penny or don't leave until they find the mistake. I say call and check - it's not right to keep it.

call em up make them fix it, right away. Eventhough they made a mistake they will hold you accontable it for it. Not worth it.

Go to the bank and let them know...you would if the money wasn't deposited.

It is the right thing to do.

I would call with me knowing that the extra was a mistake it would be my luck I would spend it and than have a $300.00 overdraft somewhere down the line...

Call the bank the teller may have to pay for the mistake.

Wow, the fact that you even have to ask the question is frightening. I know we're in tough economic times but honesty is either one of your core values or it's not.

I concur with the rest of the responses. Call. It is the right thing to do; it's what we'd teach our children, right?

And, they will eventually catch it.

I had a teller put $700 in my account while I was in college. I thought I'd won the lottery! I questioned it because it didn't sound right at all. NO ONE in my family would just give me that kind of money. If I'd used a cent of it, and then they retracted it, I would have been in a world of hurt. NOT WORTH IT!

no way. call them.
'honesty is the best policy' may be a cliche. but it's still true.
khairete
S.

I would call asap. I would need it to be fixed so I could quit being confused on how much money I really have! :)

I would call right away to have it fixed because they WILL catch it, and it would sure suck if you had spent part of the money you weren't entitled to because that's "theft by check." Believe me, they CAN charge you with that if you take the money you aren't entitled to. Doesn't mean they will...but why take that chance? Honestly, if you take it, it's theft.

I am surprised this is even up for debate :) If you paid your water bill twice by accident, I am pretty sure you would want the money back. Call them and do the right thing.

As much as I loathe the banking industry these days, I would call them out on it. You would be the better person and in turn save yourself the drama of them come looking for the money that yes, it rightfully theirs.

They will catch it, the only question is when. I would call immediately.

They will catch it.

Call the bank. No matter how the error occurred it isn't your money.

Call or wait - it doesn't matter. The second you try to spend that money you risk being charged with a crime.

The bank will catch it and if you spent the money they would expect you to pay it back, so I would call. I had this happen on a credit card once. I paid $50 on the balance and they recorded it as $500.

I would go down to the bank right away. The last thing you want to do is let it go. They'll figure it out and try to fix it. What you DON'T want is for them to fix it by backing out the whole transaction and then not putting the original $300 back in.

It's one thing for the bank to be short $300. They'll move heaven and earth to figure that one out. What I'm NOT sure of is if they'll move heaven and earth to find out why they are LONG $300...

Dawn

The right thing to do is to call the bank and inform them of the problem.

That extra $300 belongs to someone.

When I punched a $40 withdrawal into the ATM and it gave me $60, I took the extra $20 inside the bank and told them what had happened.

Doesn't matter. Its a bank, when they balance the books, they will catch it anyway. It always feels good to "do the right thing when no one else is looking". Good luck!

Its not her money! Doesn't matter if the bank made a mistake or not. Trust me, they will catch! She need to notify them ASAP.

Don't worry.... they'll figure it out....

I would call immediately. They WILL find it. You look like the better person for finding it first!

I know I wouldnt spend it, probably give it 24 hrs to clear and then call the bank..... only to keep myself from temptation.

I'm sure by now they've already caught it. Trust me, they WILL catch it, just like everybody else has told you.

If it had happened to me, I would have called right away because I don't like mistakes in my account.

I would give it a couple of days to get corrected and if not I would call Monday morning to have it fixed. With my bank though it would probably turn out like the episode of Fraiser where Martin (Frasier's dad) tried to return some money that wasn't his. The bank staff was so inept that he ended up with several thousands more than he started with. :o)

They'll catch it eventually. I used to be a teller. However, I will be honest that I'd think (just think) about going to the mall. But I'm such a chicken sh** and would think the police would come to my house and hall me away if i did.

Bank will catch it.
We had something like this once.
My hubby withdrew $100 cash. But teller recorded it as a deposit, not withdrawal. Hubby noticed and called.
The teller made correction. But, he made the same mistake (again). Now we have $100 cash and a record of two $100 DEPOSITS :-).
The supervisor caught it quickly. Bank called and told us that they reversed deposits and recorded withdrawal.
We all are just humans. But system does not make mistakes. I am a programmer. My job is to develop accounting systems. Those systems have numerous checks, so at the end of the day (or shift) human errors will be discovered. System will not let you check out until everything balances.
But at least for some time you felt $300 reacher :-)