Comments on: They did what? Biggest bank blunders ever

By: Jerry Valcik

Jerry Valcik — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:42:35 +0000

While reconciling our company account, I found a check charged to our account written on a company that we had no relations, through a bank we did know, with an account number not like ours, written to a person we did not know. The bank had no explanations.

By: Michele Milway

Michele Milway — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:06:06 +0000

My son recently tried paying for something with his debit card only to be denied. Needless to say he went to the bank immediately to check his balance. When he got there he was met by one of the managers who was on the phone with the head office. Checking his account he found that he was overdrawn by more than $4000. (This was a bank error according to the manager, who was on the phone attempting to fix the error). Suddenly she started to laugh and asked my son how quickly he could make out a withdrawal slip. It seems while trying to correct the first error that caused the overdraw, another mistake was made crediting my son with over $300,000. I am not sure why but my son still banks there.

By: Charles Slater

Charles Slater — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:42:37 +0000

Here is a bank blunder that affected me. My son, 19 years old at the time, had a checking account with one of the major banks in Pennsylvania; I had custodial access to that account. One day I found an unexpected deposit made the previous day for $25,000. Where had this come from? I went to a bank branch, where a teller at first told me that this was a correct deposit. He even reprinted and gave me copy of a deposit slip from another branch of the bank, showing me an authorized deposit of this amount….in cash. I pressed and pressed, and he was finally able to get an answer from the manager of that branch. Another customer with the same first and last name as my son had taken out a $25,000 line of credit, and had arranged with the bank to deposit that amount into his own checking account. The teller had carelessly deposited it by name, not by account number.
At my insistence, they immediately froze those funds, and removed them from my son’s account.
Now, just imagine if I hadn’t noticed this error. The proper account’s owner was probably writing checks against this line of credit. Wouldn’t those checks have bounced. Here’s another thought. I have a copy of the deposit ticket, which is to all appearances perfectly legitimate and shows a deposit made by cash. Suppose I had taken those funds, insisting that the deposit ticket was correct. How long and how much trouble until the bank properly corrected the error.
Anyway, at my insistence the bank corrected the error. I still bank there, but I check my balances every day.