On 4/16, I deposited my paycheck ($728.67). I did not withold any cash. Unfortunately, I ddin’t keep the little receipt that the teller gave me.
Yesterday I was balancing my checkbook and looking over my bank’s on-line statement, and it shows the deposit I made on that date as $128.67. Obviously, I’m a little alarmed at being $600 short. :eek:
Do I have any recourse? I would think that the bank could go through their files and find my paycheck and deposit slip (or at least the deposit slip) to remedy this. Do banks usually stonewall customers when this sort of thing happens? Or am I SOL for not holding on to the receipt?
Of course you are not SOL, just call them up on the customer service phone number or go by there. This is not a big deal at all fellow, just a bookeeping matter. Might take a couple of days to straighten out, but if you deposited a check for that amount should be easily corrected – given you were not overdrawn to begin with. Cash, otoh, might have presented a bit more of a problem.
In addition, surely your employer’s records will show that they were debited the correct amount, and/or they should have paperwork showing what the amount they paid you was.
I’ve made ATM deposits and mistakenly entered the wrong amount. At first the amount I entered showed up on the statement, but then the bank posted a correction (deposit or withdrawal, as appropriate) without my having contacted them. My experience is that banks are rather scrupulous about doing the right thing.
Assuming you don’t need that $600 right away, I’d say hold tight. Eventually they’ll catch their mistake and send you a letter saying they fixed it.
I was in a position similar to yours, where I accidentally filled out the deposit slip (and keyed into the ATM) an amount that was a couple of dollars off from the amount on the check, and a week or 2 later got a letter that my account had been corrected accordingly.
For the record, the amount I keyed in/filled out shorted me a couple of bucks. The bank still credited me that cash. They’re not just going to take your money and run.
I spoke to the banker today and at first she tried to stonewall me (“without the receipt there’s very little I can do”), but I pressed on and she hesitantly agreed to check through the previous week’s microfilm.
An hour later she called and apologized profusely, and said that they would credit my account immediately and would not charge me for any overdrafts, should any checks try to clear.
I’ve worked for several banks. Going through the microfilm was not ususally a part of my job, but there were a couple of times when I had to. It was very tedious and not fun at all. That was a while ago. I’m surprised that the banks don’t scan the images now.
The books would have been out of balance, and they don’t stop looking until they are in balance. They would have found the error eventually.
You did the right thing by pushing her. I’m just saying I have some sympathy for her.
Actually, I believe that something in the Patriot Act requires banks to scan all checks and deposits. At least that’s the excuse that my bank gave me for my being able to look at everything online.
I, too, am surprised that they use microfilm anymore.
I would think it would be in a banks best interest to figure out the mistake. Not just because of customer service, but because they’d rather have a $728 deposit, then a $128 deposit. They WANT more of your money in the their bank.
Wouldn’t having the account number, the amount of the discrepancy, and date of the deposit (maybe even an approximate time of day) make the search for the OP’s transaction a fairly trivial task?
Just want to chime in to say that these sorts of errors happen all the time with businesses who make large deposits – and by large what I mean isn’t necessarily large dollar amounts, but large numbers of checks. I run a youth sports organization, and when we have a fundraiser or a signup day, we’ll deposit hundreds of checks at once. It’s easy to make a mistake, either when filling out the deposit slip or when the teller is adding them up.
Also, my wife worked as a teller for a long time. As other posters have said, everything has to balance, so they eventually catch this. The teller should balance her drawer against what the computer says she took in and gave out. And the branch itself has to balance. Bottom line is that these sorts of errors happen all the time, and while the bank is going to verify before crediting your account, they’ll always fix a mistake like this.