I recently closed one of my bank accounts and naturally shredded the atm card and unused checks. Then I got to wondering, why? If the account is closed, what malicious use can they be put to?
Someone who finds the checkbook can write bad checks on your (closed) account, thereby ruining your Good Name with local merchants.
Rather unlikely, but it’s been known to happen.
Someone could still pass checks on the account. They would come back, o course marked “account closed” but the merchant will only have your name and address to try to recover his money. Eventually, it will get straightened out but meanwhile it will be a big headache for you.
Also I’ve heard of people closing their accounts but the bank never quite gets around to doing it. Then a check will come through and the bank will pay it out and charge you an overdraft fee.
You have to make sure that when you close the account it says “CLOSED”
I had a funny experience with TCF Bank. I closed my account in March 2010. Last month, September 2010, I got a note from them saying if I would automatically get overdraft protection unless I opted out.
I went online and accessed my account and it says “Account closed.” I went in and asked about it, and the asst manager assured me the BANK ACCOUNT was closed, but my CUSTOMER ACCOUNT would stay open, in case in the future I wanted to begin banking with them.
So I can see how mistakes can happen
I never thought of that.
Thanks everybody.
I’ve heard other dopers also relate accounts of closing an account to deal with fraudulent charges, only to have the bank take the money out of their new account. The only solution being to close all account and go to another bank altogether.
Years ago, I threw out an old checkbook from an account I had closed over a year prior. It turned out that someone else in my apartment complex had dug through the dumpster, found my checks, and started using them. I had no idea anything was going on at all until I received a call from the police one night stating that my neighbor had been caught.
Luckily, my neighbor was so stupid that he had used the checks to order a pizza from the same place 5 nights in a row. Never mind that the address didn’t even match his own. The police finally caught him as the pizza #5 was being delivered to his door.
I had exactly this happen. I wrote about it on SDMB and may be one of the dopers you remember. I thought the last conversation I had with the local branch manager of the offending bank: “So, no matter what I do, you will continue to take money from whatever account I have here when it is withdrawn from any of these closed accounts?” “Yes, I’m afraid that’s right.” “How about if I had an account at some other bank? Would you take money from that bank account?” “No, of course not, there wouldn’t be any way we could do that”. “I thought not. Can you guess what is going to happen now?”