Bank error in my favor?

[Name Lips]

This is weird. Really weird.

Emerald obsessively balances our bank account every Friday.

Last week she reconciled our account. We said we had $589. The bank said we had $589. All was good.

This week she checked again. She entered in all the transactions for the last week and verified them against what the bank says happened. There were no discrepancies.

Except for the final balance. The bank says we have $400 more than we say.

Nowhere in the last week is there a deposit for $400.

We scrolled up through the bank history, and last week the bank says we had $989. $400 higher than we say we had. So whatever money the bank gave us was added retroactively - sometime in the past. Before the reconciliation last week.

So we decided to dig deeper.

And we just found $200 mysteriously added to one of my paychecks from 2007. It was when I got a night job at WalMart to make ends meet. Our money program says I got payed $675. The bank record says I got paid $875. Exactly $200 off.

So that's $200 of our mysterious extra $400.

But can the bank retroactively change a deposit from over a year ago to give us $200 extra dollars? It's so bizarre that they wouldn't mention it.

If I had the original paystub from that period it would help with the mystery. Was my check actually for $875, or $675? I can't believe we wouldn't have noticed a $200 discrepancy at the time.

And we still can't find the other mystical $200 we've gotten.

[Freedom Canadian]

Dude ! :shock:

You need to get rid of that money as soon as possible !

This is something they do so they can spy on people. They deposit extra money in your account while adding a kind of electronic tag to it that acts like some type of electronic bug. Because it's their money, they can keep track of the account where it is deposited so they can learn all about your income, spending habits, who you support politically and who your friends are, etc.

The only way to get rid of that is to withdraw it all (as cash, of course, never use electronic money :boggle: !)

Or else, IDENTITY THEFT is the least thing you will have to worry about.

Hell, I would close that bank account altogether if this happened to me. Better safe (well, safe-ish) than sorry !

[Varaj]

The can back date it but it would be very strange for them to do it that way. If they were correcting it they would make a new entry. Call them and ask what is up.

[Radu]

I'd go with Varaj on this one. A phone call to see what's going on is probably much more likely to result in you and your family not getting into trouble. Then again, it is much harder to try and skip the country on some sort of crazily ostentatious vacation with a $400 bank error, but the essential principles are the same.

[Lady Fury]

If you spend money that isn't yours you can be charged with theft. They might have applied money to your account on accident. You need to call and get it straightened out immediately. Make sure you get the name of the person who helps as well. Documentation is always a good thing.

[Dawnstar]

I completely agree that you need to call the bank as soon as possible and work with them to figure it out. And since you balance your check book each week you can tell them that it happened in the last week because last week everything balanced out correctly.

Good luck.

[shiningbrow]

I agree that you should contact the bank for several reasons. If it's legitimately your money, that will become apparent as they investigate. If it's some kind of weird effort to access your account via identity theft, this will alert their security people. I know some financial companies (online banks, mostly) make small deposits into your linked accounts in order to verify them. In the same way, some credit card theft rings make small charges to your card, just to insure that the cc # actually works. Discover called me once because they found this happening and they put a stop to it. Thieves are clever. They rely on your not noticing things like this, so you can't be too careful.

[Lmik]

Oh that $400 dollars. It's mine! I left it in your account by mistake last week when I was in messing about in there. If you could just withdraw it as small used denominations and post it down to me at Lmik c/- Kiwifraud that would be great thanks. If you wanted to I could give you a nigerian oilfield in exchange?

[Pigs in Space]

Oh that $400 dollars. It's mine! I left it in your account by mistake last week when I was in messing about in there. If you could just withdraw it as small used denominations and post it down to me at Lmik c/- Kiwifraud that would be great thanks. If you wanted to I could give you a nigerian oilfield in exchange?

I too am a nigerian prince, and I need somewhere to put my millions of honestly earned dollars, temporarily.

If you send me your account details, I will leave you with a 3rd of my money for your trouble.

p.s. Lmik is a fraud. Just look at those shifty eyes.

[Name Lips]

We called the bank. The guy who answered the phone seems to think we're insane. "So... you balanced your checkbook last week and it was fine, and you balanced it this week and there was an extra $400, with no transaction anywhere to account for it?" He kept asking if there was a transaction somewhere we had a question about. Finally we asked "so can we trust that the amount you say we have is correct and we can just spend whatever money is in there?" "Um... yeah." "Can you put a note in our account saying we spoke to you about this so if a mistake is discovered years down the line it'll be on record that we contacted you about it?" "OK, I'll put in a note." (Note probably reads: Insane customer. Thinks $400 magically appeared in account with no transaction to account for it."

So maybe it was a gift from God!

[PWD]

Varaj thinks you should go to jail, you know. :heh:

[Limper]

Has Walmart had to pony up for any lawsuits recently?

Maybe the bank had a hold on part of it and just got it cleared... glitch from wayback being corrected?

[Space Cadet B^3]

Obviously you should cash out your account and move to Florida. ;)

[The Theocrat of Poon-Tang]

I'd be a little leary only due to the indentity theft angle. Honestly, for the amount of money we're talking about, I don't know if I'd worry about it somehow being viewed as "theft". There's a difference between receiving an unknown, de minimis amount that reasonably could have been yours and receiving an extra hundred thousand dollars, like those recent knuckleheads, who knew damn well it wasn't theirs.

At any rate, you did your due diligence by alerting the bank to the fact that they may have made a mistake.

[Varaj]

Varaj thinks you should go to jail, you know. :heh:

Only because they don't vaccinate their kids. :devil:

[there_is_no_bob]

they don't vaccinate their kids.
MURDER! DEATH! KILL! AAAARGH!
:censored:


...Wait, what? I blacked out for a second there. What was that post about?


AAARGH! MURDER! DEATH! KILL!
:cursing:

[Varaj]

MURDER! DEATH! KILL! AAAARGH!
:censored:


...Wait, what? I blacked out for a second there. What was that post about?


AAARGH! MURDER! DEATH! KILL!
:cursing:

In all fairness they did vaccinate their kids just in a slightly different schedule than the standard, but still within "acceptable" time frame.*
Heck I think they may even drink fluoridated water. :)

*As far as I know.

[there_is_no_bob]

In all fairness they did vaccinate their kids just in a slightly different schedule than the standard, but still within "acceptable" time frame.*
Heck I think they may even drink fluoridated water. :)

*As far as I know.
Well, that's good. I'd hate to have to travel to NM to cock-punch people. There are so many deserving candidates here at home...:(

[Varaj]

Well, that's good. I'd hate to have to travel to NM to cock-punch people. There are so many deserving candidates here at home...:(

Yeah sadly the anti-vaccination baby killer movement is growing. :mad:

[cnath.rm]

Great news from the bank :) Congrats!!

Yeah sadly the anti-vaccination baby killer movement is growing. :mad:There is a part of me that almost thinks I've got a worse one, the family I knew from where I used to live who went to live/work in africa... and didn't get vaccinations against malaria or whicheverdamnone it is that you never actually get over but that can came back at any time. Their daughter caught it while she was over there.

[Cat of Ulthar]

Great news from the bank :) Congrats!!

There is a part of me that almost thinks I've got a worse one, the family I knew from where I used to live who went to live/work in africa... and didn't get vaccinations against malaria or whicheverdamnone it is that you never actually get over but that can came back at any time. Their daughter caught it while she was over there.

Wankers. I think that should be listed as child abuse.:mad: