How *Not* To Handle A Bank Error In Your Favor
I still get a regular stream of comments on my old post on handling a bank error in your favor. Many are people who also got some money by accident and are looking for advice. Then I saw this AP article “Pa. couple spent windfall from bank error” posted at FW, which is a good lesson on what not to do:
A Pennsylvania couple is behind bars after police say they failed to call the bank when a glitch put an extra $175,000 in their account. Authorities say 50-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Pratt instead withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida. They were buying a house in the Orlando area when the mistake was traced.
The two were arraigned Tuesday on theft and other charges and jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. A public defender was being assigned.
A $1,772.50 deposit showed up in their FNB Bank account last summer as $177,250. Police say Melissa Pratt said her husband, a roofing installer, often got large checks and she wasn’t aware of any error.
Gotta love their excuse. Did he think he re-roofed the White House in his sleep or something?
January 15th, 2009 at 6:40 am
A few months ago I received a letter in the mail from Regions informing me of a bank error where they deposited $49 extra into my account. The letter notified me they had already withdrawn the money and corrected the problem. I was very dissapointed, as I am a big Monopoly player!
January 15th, 2009 at 6:45 am
At least we’re not in China where you could potentially get a life sentence for taking money that came from a bank error/ATM malfunction. (But even in China, looks like they reduced the guy’s sentence to 5 years after a huge public outcry.)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/c.....580420.htm
January 15th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I’ve only once had a bank error in my favor. Happened at an ATM in New Jersey while on business travel where I took out $100 but was hurried out of the ATM booth by a bank employee trying to shut down the ATM (for maintenance? at 9:00 AM?). It wasn’t until I was well on my way down the road that I noticed two of the five “twenties” I got were actually fifties. A nice little $60 bonus probably caused by an employee putting the bills in the wrong slot. I won’t say what bank it was but their incompetent service had ticked me off enough by that point that I didn’t care about ethics and had no intention of giving it back, especially to a branch several states away from home. And no, they never traced it - you gotta love cash.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Hah, that’s nothing. My wife’s old bank actually one time deposited over 2 million dollars into her little checking account. Yeah, we were tempted.
When she went to the bank to let them know the error, the teller was *quite* surprised.
Even so, it took over a week for the money to be taken back, and then, they put it back in her account a few days later, so we had to replay the whole thing again!
January 15th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Kyle, wow! What a temptation to have $2000000 for nothing. Can’t imagine this…
January 15th, 2009 at 9:07 am
My sister had ~$20k deposited into her account by mistake (someone messed up the account number). When she notified the bank, they removed it pretty quickly… twice. And then charged her overdraft fees for having a balance of -$15k. It took another 2 weeks to get them to put back $20k, during which point she had no access to any money in her account, and then another couple of weeks before they refunded all the overdraft charges…
January 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I had a friend receive a $900 error when we were in college. She wanted to go out and spend that money, it was a lot to a poor college student. I told her she couldn’t cause at any point they can come back and take it away. Sure enough about 6 months later the bank figured it out.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:11 am
What about the interest on the money they put into an account? Usually its probably not much, but interest on $2 million sitting in an account for a week is quite a lot of money…would they take that back too?
January 15th, 2009 at 11:19 am
I had a teller once try to give me a withdrawal twice for a transaction. I had to argue with her that she was paying me double and for her to keep the 2nd amount of money! hehe. I’ve worked on a register in the past, you don’t want to come up short.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I once quit a job and they still paid me… I let the auto-deposited paychecks accumulate for a month or two thinking they would stop, but on the third month I got a little nervous so I called them and told them to stop paying me. I sent them a check for the full amount they had overpaid me.
Sure enough, they said they fixed the problems, but continued to pay me. I finally got it straightened out 6 months after I left the job, but I’m pretty sure they would still be paying me if I hadn’t kept bringing it to their attention.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
so many good people its nice to see
i put a 300 check in and they counted it 3000
no i didnt get the money either
January 15th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Soo if a bank messes up with my money they get a bail out, but if they mess up with theirs I go to jail? I see the logic in that .. :\
January 15th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
OUCH!! Someone’s not keeping very good track of the books at their company if that huge amount came in and there was no invoice to apply it toward! LOL! I could never do that. I’d have to let them know about the mistake as soon as I did!! I knew of a young woman who never let the electricity company know that she wasn’t getting a bill, she figured why tell them? For over a year! Finally they realized their error, and billed her for an entire year at once!
January 16th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I charged college tuition to a credit card once. They took it out twice! So I called the bank. They refunded the second one… then they refunded the first one!
I made several attempts over 6 months to tell the bank they gave me $2400. I never could get through (even in person…)
I eventually gave up - their fault.
Funny thing is, years later - that money is “gone”. Unless you buy or invest in something specific, extra money just melts away slowly at Wal-Mart and Subway. I wonder how long it would take $175,000 to melt… probably not long - in Florida!
January 17th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
You never know. People do all sorts of things in their sleep these days!
The only bank error I’ve ever noticed was NOT in my favor — about $75 in the wrong direction for an overseas shipment I did not authorize. 
January 18th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I don’t know that they should go to jail for doing that, although they should have to give up the money. I think I saw a case where someone got a check from their local gov. for millions and they returned it. I think I would do the same thing. You would get in trouble for it eventually.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
That is an incredible story. I’ve never had a bank error of any significance - maybe a couple of pennies here or there - but LOL - as long as they repaid the money I wouldn’t put them in prison I suppose, but come on - they knew better.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
The bank should have to pay for there errors. Maybe there clerks would learn how to type clearly. And there would be less.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Today I noticed that my bank credited me $5,750 for a check for $57.50 made out to cash. Of course I went immediately to the bank to resolve it. I wonder if I will get the 2 days interest credit (not much I’m sure).
September 1st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I WAS LAID OFF FROM MY LAST JOB.. I WENT TO PICKUP MY LAST CHECK… THINKING NOTHING OF IT I LOOKED AT IT.. HAD A LAST FEW WORDS WITH MY H.R MANAGER, IN THAT CONVO SHE ASKED HOW MUCH WAS MY CK I TOLD HER AND WE SAID OUR GOOD-BYES… NOW SHE IS SAYING I WAS OVER PAID $200 AND I AM GOING TO PUT IN JAIL… OMG!!! CAN SHE DO THAT?