I just gave away $16K

Two months ago, I received my CC statement and to my surprise, discovered that the bank had erroneously posted a payment of $16,500 to my account! I figured it was just a misprint, and it would be corrected by my next statement. I sent in my "true" payment and forgot about it.

Last month, when I checked my statement, the $16,500 credit was still there. I called the bank, was put on hold forever and finally just left a message about the error.

Well, when I got my next statement, the credit was still there!
Now, I would love it if the bank wiped out my real credit balance (it was about $2,000) but I'm no thief and I can't just accept $16k without losing sleep over it.

So I finally got someone on the phone (after being on hold for 20 minutes) and explained the situation. The gal looked over my account and said she couldn't find anything wrong with it. No red flags, all appeared legit. So she transfered me to a supervisor (another 10 minute wait) who took a look at my account. The supervisor simply said, "Okay, thank you. We'll remove it from your account. Can I help you with anything else?"

Jeez, I don't expect a medal or anything, but now I feel like a dope for trying to do the right thing. One of my cycling buddies said I should have just taken the money, since the bank was the one who made the mistake. My mom said I did the right thing. I'm very torn. Honestly, what would you have done?

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Originally Posted by Bluetree

So I finally got someone on the phone (after being on hold for 20 minutes) and explained the situation. The gal looked over my account and said she couldn't find anything wrong with it. No red flags, all appeared legit. So she transfered me to a supervisor (another 10 minute wait) who took a look at my account. The supervisor simply said, "Okay, thank you. We'll remove it from your account. Can I help you with anything else?"

Jeez, I don't expect a medal or anything, but now I feel like a dope for trying to do the right thing. One of my cycling buddies said I should have just taken the money, since the bank was the one who made the mistake. My mom said I did the right thing. I'm very torn. Honestly, what would you have done?

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you did the right thing. I would have done the same. Eventually they would have found out and you would have had to pay it back. On the other hand that shouldn't even matter. Ethics like yours are refreshing in this world...
This happened to me in Chemistry class once, the teacher and the rest of the students laughed at me when i pointed out that he gave me credit for a wrong answer...


(Then again, if it was in a brown paper bag in an alley what would you have done with it??)

You did the right thing. Remember, what goes around, comes around.

You did the right thing but the bank's reaction was appalling. I would have done what you did.

Write, or ask to speak to someone further up the tree. Or ask to speak to the chief internal auditor - there's obviously some control failure when this happens and people are trying to cover up.

I had a problem with a company in different circumstances and wrote to the chairman of the board not expecting a response but I got a personal reply and some credit vouchers.

The brown paper bag in the alley hmmmm? I'd still take it to the cops.

Transfer Banks. Immeadiatley.

That's someone's 16000!!! And the fact they're non-chalont about it makes me feel like they don't really care about their customer's welfare. That other customer is probably filing a complaint with a district court.

You've certainly done the right thing Bluetree.

My brother had the same thing happen to him cept it was 25000. HE didn't have any morals though and didn't tell the bank. They removed the money eventually but Honestly I don't think I could've slept at night knowing Some granny's money or worse Some "drug" money was sitting in my account!

You're right. I will transfer banks, but not before I send off a letter to the execs.

It's just a little disheartening to have that much $$$ thrown in your face like that. But in the words of the immortal Detective Pembleton from the show Homicide: Life on the Street still one of the best cop shows ever...
"Virtue is meaningless unless it is tested by vice."

I would definitely want to find a different bank. If they're that nonchalant about you "finding" 16K, they're likely to be the same about losing it... and since that 16K probly got entered to your account from a keystroke mistake, there's somebody out there whose account *didn't* get the dough... and one of these days it would come back to haunt you.
It could come back to haunt you somehow anyway, so I'd get my dollars *outta* there. What if they figure out the 16K - but *don't* figure out that you gave it back because they didn't record that in the same way? They'll be coming after you for it!!!

Hi Bluetree!

You definitely did the right thing :D .

I think it's a great idea that you're going to write a letter to the Execs at the bank. Probably a good idea to send a copy of your letter to anyone else you feel appropriate.

I would transfer banks right away, though. $16K is a lot of money! They're treating this as if it's a $10.00 error.

Good for you, Bluetree :)!

Peace & Love,
Denise

If it makes you feel any better I would have (reluctantly) done the same (and right) thing that you did.

No fanfare from the Bank but just know you made Brownie points with the Guy upstairs.

God Bless you for being honest - it was someone's money and I'm sure they are glad to get it back.

This reminds me of the card in Monopoly that says "Bank error in your favor, you get $5" (or $16,000!!!). Big difference, obviously. You did the right thing. You don't want that bad karma.

You did good. I've done the same in similar circumstances, though never with such a large amount. I've also been on the other end, as the person who's had some money (about $7000) overpaid out of my account. Luckily for me, the "lucky" recipient returned it. Whew!!!

What strikes me here is that in a store when I tell the cashier (s)he's made an error in my favor and return the $5 or whatever, I get a biiiig thank-you right away. Here you report 16 thou that they were bound to miss somewhere down the line, and all you get is half an hour of wait-muzak and a verbal shrug??? What's with that?

You did the right thing. :) I agree, switch banks as soon as possible.

yes you did the right thing. explains where my $16K went. ;)

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Originally Posted by Bluetree

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"Virtue is meaningless unless it is tested by vice."

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great quote. you absolutely did the right thing Bluetree. i had a similar thing happen with a much smaller amount of money many years ago, and got the same type of reaction from the bank.

pat yourself on the back for making the effort to get to someone and tell them what was going on :) try to remember their indifference speaks volumes about them and has nothing to do with you.

er.. what bank was it??

annika - $5 --> $16000. it's all about inflation and net present value :)

I had something similar happen with a smaller amount. I had an account that I wanted to close. It has a small sum left in it - like $150 or something. What I decided to do with it was donate the remainder to public TV. I called and did it as a debit transaction. So several months passed and the money never came out of my account. I called the bank and told them. Nothing we can do about - there haven't been any complaints. I called the TV station and told them about it - We got our money we're happy. Called the bank again - nothing wrong here don't worry about it! I think I left the money there about a year and finally took it out and re-donated it. I was a little scared to do it though. Once before, right after I graduated from college and moved out here I closed a bank account. I took all the money out and closed the account to move. A month or so later the school (I worked there) found that they had made some sort of accounting error and had overpaid everyone a small amount - like $60 or something. The bank reopened my account and put it into debit!!! I hadn't left any forwarding addess because I closed the account, so the bank was sending me these overdrawn notices to me at my old address and racking up fines for being overdrawn. Boy was I p*ssed when I finally found out. The bank and I had a long chit chat and they finally took the fines off and all I had to repay them was the original amount, but I was really distressed to find out that they could re-open a closed account without my permission.

Bluetree, the only part of this story that nags at me is where the supervisor you finally spoke to told you they would "remove" the money from your account and not to worry about it anymore. How do you know this person didn't just see a great opportunity to "remove" $16.000 from a bank client's account without having it be missed or questioned by anyone else? Maybe they "helped" you by taking the money out and putting it in their OWN private account instead??
If I were you I would insist on speaking to the Pres. or the vice Pres. of the bank and making sure that the money went someplace it was supposed to go.

Yowie,
I just heard from my best friend, an attorney, and she mentioned cases of people suing over "unjust enrichment," involving banks and financial institutions that make errors in money transfers. I better make copies and send out my letters certified so it doesn't come back to bite me in the butt.

Sorry CWR, you'll be seeing your money again soon!:p

Kudos to YOU! Right is right, whether appreciated or not!

We had the same thing happen a few years ago with similar response...I think the lack of response was as much having someone on the other end of the line that was STUNNED BY BLATANT HONESTLY.:D :D

Personally, I'm not surprised that you did the right thing.

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Originally Posted by Bluetree

Yowie,
I just heard from my best friend, an attorney, and she mentioned cases of people suing over "unjust enrichment," involving banks and financial institutions that make errors in money transfers. I better make copies and send out my letters certified so it doesn't come back to bite me in the butt.

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I was thinking about that at work, In my previous job, I was in charge of a computer program that printed legal forms for a child support system.
One of the Forms was the overpayment form. It basically said "Hi! we paid you too much money! now give it back, or we'll send Guido out to breaka youse arms."

You did the right thing. I applaud you for that. But I, on the other hand, for the type of person I am, would have kept the credit.:D

Oh you absolutely did the right thing! They would have found it at some point.
Last year we (me, hubby, 9 yr old son) were sitting in the window of a cafe at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. My son suddenly said "MOM, THAT LADY JUST DROPPED 5.00". So I asked him if he could see the lady. He said yes that she was in line. So I told him to go grab it and give it to her. He did, and she was so impressed with his honesty that she gave it to him. She even came over to us and congratulated us on such a "fabulous, honest young man". She was an older lady and she said " I hope you don't take offense to this. But it gives me faith in young parents again. It just seems that I see a lot of HORRIBLE parenting these days." :rolleyes: Yep ma'am, there is a lot out there. But there are also just as many GOOD parents, so have faith... ;)