My Checking Account Balance according to my bank statements and ATM receipts is higher than my personal record (checkbook) shows.
The discrepancy had been about $230 in my favor. Over the course of about a month and a half of writing many paper checks I wasn’t exactly sure whether or not there really was a discrepancy because checks were posting at various times and I wasn’t really sure which checks had been paid and which were still outstanding.
Then over the course of two weeks I sat down with my bank statement and my checkbook three times trying to find the mistake. The first two times I didn’t see it. Finally the third time I reviewed it I realized that upon recording a deposit of $95 I mistakenly subtracted $95.
O.K. So, I made the appropriate correction- but that only accounts for $190. There’s still a $40 discrepancy. It is now three months since I first noticed the discrepancy.
Now, even though I can not locate the mistake- I can not say for certain that the mistake is simply a math error on my part- I figure I can probably proceed as if it was just a math error on my part. I can probably just call that extra $40 mine and add it to my balance.
But the thing is I get really paranoid about my checking account balance. Every two weeks I deposit my paycheck, each paycheck is used very nearly in it’s entirety by the time I deposit the next paycheck. So, my account, cyclically, nears a zero balance twice a month. I’m paranoid about counting that $40, then writing a check, then having the bank notice that the mistake is on their end, then they correct it, then the check posts and bounces!
Am I being too paranoid? Should I just add the $40 to my balance? It been three months!
Why not sit down with someone at the bank and resolve this? Until you do, you’ll never be quite sure where you sit.
A lawyer could probably explain to you just how long you must wait in your area before you’ve established a legal claim to the $40. It’s probably reasonable to assume that it’s longer than 3 months, and that the lawyer will charge more than $40 for this service.
To me $40 sounds like an ATM withdrawal. You may have put it in twice. In my expirenece, whenever I have a floating overage it will dissapear as soon as I assume it is "mine, all mine’.
YMMV, but my credit union was unable to help me when I had a similar situation. A few years ago my checkbook and my account statement balances were off by ~$20, I’d been pouring over past statements and couldn’t find the discrepancy, and it was driving me crazy: I finally called customer service out of sheer frustration, and the sympathetic woman I talked to patiently explained that they had no way of helping me sort out my personal records. (Eventually I figured it out.)
Bienville, for now I’d follow don’t ask’s advice and go by your balance. Every month or so, try to work out the discrepancy again; personally, I wouldn’t be comfortable adding the “extra” $40 to my checkbook for at least a year.
Another related anecdote: I used to never balance my checkbook. I was very careful about recording deposits and withdrawals, the balance on my ATM receipts was never far off the balance in my checkbook (and was always higher), and for years I had no problem with my “system.” Then one day I noticed that the balance on my ATM receipts was significantly higher than the balance in my checkbook, and it stayed like that for months . . . about $60 higher. I’d kept all of my bank statements (unopened), so I finally enlisted my mom’s help and set about balancing my checkbook as best we could. It turns out that the extra $60 was the result of years of accrued interest! I’d never bothered recording my monthly interest because it was always some tiny amount (less than $1), but over the years it certainly added up. Since that time (I want to say 7 years ago?), I have faithfully balanced my checkbook every month or two.
