A little late for that

[bankworking]

A good rule of thumb for any financial account: savings, checking, credit cards, etc. is to occasionally look over the account for problems.

Fun fact: most unauthorized transactions must be disputed within 60 days of the statement posting period or you are completely liable for any losses. Other things that you need to actually notice in a reasonable amount of time include your direct deposits not showing up where they are supposed to go. Even bank errors, flat out they did it WRONG, needs to actually be noticed by you in a time period where it is possible to at least research the problem.

Second fun fact: most financial records within a bank are destroyed after five years. There are exceptions. Check copies, for instance, get saved for seven years. But for many things, after five years, it's gone (and sometimes shorter than that). See, if it's electronic, the bank is paying for that archival space. If it's on paper, then there is a storage facility of some time with a finite.

Sorry to be over-explainy, but seriously:

SC comes in THREE times this week to question withdrawals made from her individual account over five years ago.

Now, one of the transactions is a transfer out of the account for over 29,000 dollars. That's an amount that I can definitely understand being concerned about... you know, some time around when it actually happened. But still, I do my best. We keep the electronic copies of receipts practically forever, and we keep our own statements back to 1992 (when we started archiving them electronically), so I'm actually able to discover relatively quickly that the transaction in question from April of 2009 was a transfer from her individual account to her joint account with her husband.

Problem solved, right?

Not even close. She proceeds to inform me that SHE did not authorize that transfer. Worse, she does so in the most condescending way possible.

SC: "Is this account not an individual account, with no one on it except for me?"
Me: "Yes ma'am, it is."
SC: "Does that not mean that I am the only one able to withdraw funds from that account?"
Me: "Yes ma'am, you are the only person able to authorize withdrawals from that account."
SC: "Then explain to me how this withdrawal happened without my permission!"

Unfortunately, while I have a copy of the receipt on file, it is a wet-signed receipt. That means the electronic copy is not the signed copy (the receipt images at the same time that it prints out). Now we DO keep the copies of the signed receipts... for five years.

So, can I prove to the SC that it was her signature that authorized the transaction? No I cannot. I can tell her that it went into another account with her name on it. Now maybe, just maybe, an employee made an error and allowed the member's husband to make the withdraw/transfer. If this happened, it was most definitely in error.

Do I think that is what happened? No, not really. Not when the other three transactions she questioned from several years ago, I DID have copies of her own signature to prove that she was the one who authorized them.

And frankly, even if the money went to someone else entirely, there would be nothing I could do about it now.

Five years without noticing a 29 thousand dollar withdraw. Must be nice to be able to ignore that sort of money.

Oh, and the joint account was still open, with plenty of funds still in it. So she could have, if she wanted to, move the funds back to her individual account.

[notalwaysright]

Do I think that is what happened? No, not really. Not when the other three transactions she questioned from several years ago, I DID have copies of her own signature to prove that she was the one who authorized them.

And frankly, even if the money went to someone else entirely, there would be nothing I could do about it now.

It's never the SC's fault, is it? Even five years ago I was checking my bank accounts and credit card balances online. At least weekly, if not nearly daily if I had reason to. As an example, a while ago I bought some rum, and one or two weeks later I glanced at my receipt (possibly as I was throwing it away) and saw I was charged twice. Called the place, they don't have video for that long ago, sorry. Was I sad? Yup. Did I blame anyone buy myself? Nope. And that was for one bottle of rum, not thousands of dollars...

[Akasa]

How do you NOT KNOW you're missing thousands of dollars?!?!!?!

[BrenDAnn]

The sad part is, probably 50% or more of my customer base could be this stupid. I don't mean that because they're that rich. Not many of them are. I say it because most of them don't take a single receipt with them. Hell, half of them leave the receipt hanging out of the gas pump after they pay at the pump! It makes me wonder just how many of them keep an eye on their funds. I may not keep a check register, but I do go over my account online from time to time to check for any oddities!

[Seshat]

I do know one person who spent thousands of dollars and didn't notice ....


.... she was suffering from Mania at the time.
(And yes, I do mean full-on, psychological illness, properly diagnosed by a psychiatrist, mania.)

[Shalom]

I do know one person who spent thousands of dollars and didn't notice ....


.... she was suffering from Mania at the time.

I heard of someone once, bipolar, who'd gone over the edge into full-blown mania without anyone else noticing. They found out when he walked into a car dealership, looked at two cars, couldn't decide which color he liked better, and bought both, even though he didn't have enough money for more than one of them.

I also know personally an ex-stockbroker who was bipolar. He did his most brilliant trading when he was hypomanic, and had one employee whose job was to watch his meds... unfortunately one day he went over the edge and lost his shirt (and his license).

[Aria]

The sad part is, probably 50% or more of my customer base could be this stupid. I don't mean that because they're that rich. Not many of them are. I say it because most of them don't take a single receipt with them. Hell, half of them leave the receipt hanging out of the gas pump after they pay at the pump! It makes me wonder just how many of them keep an eye on their funds. I may not keep a check register, but I do go over my account online from time to time to check for any oddities!

I never take receipts. In fact, our gas registers have the option not to give them. I just occasionally look at my transactions online. My spending patterns are pretty regular so I'd notice anything out of place.

[Catwoman2965]

I don't balance my checkbook as i do most of my banking and other bill pay online. I do however, check my account every couple of days, as well as my cc accounts. I also have a bad habit of keeping ALL receipts for anything. i shove them in a shopping bag, and periodiclaly go through them. I don't know WHY i keep them, but just do. Getting better, but still don't need as many as i keeP!

But yeah, people are dumb. you need to stay on top of things, and check regularly!

[Ironclad Alibi]

I never take receipts. In fact, our gas registers have the option not to give them. I just occasionally look at my transactions online. My spending patterns are pretty regular so I'd notice anything out of place.

I used my new chip card the other day and found out they have to print out the receipt. I had told the clerk I did not want a receipt, but when she cancelled the receipt, she cancelled the transaction. I had to go back later to redo it.

[raudf]

I check my bank account every couple of days, which is how I caught the fraud via both my debit card and my husband's. I cancelled each card as it happened and in my hub's case, we filed disputes before the charges were still pending. As I told the teller working with us, "I know they haven't cleared, but between my son's schedule and my hub's, I'm not sure I'd be in time to dispute them. If we can just go ahead and file the paperwork, that'd be great. If they don't clear, then I'll rejoice and chalk this time up as using foresight.. If they do clear, I'll be glad for the foresight and planning!

Of course, they cleared and were disputed. Easy to see they were fraudulent, because the card was used for gas in Little Rock, AR and five minutes later, used at a restaurant in Florida. As I told the teller, "If I had known my husband could teleport...."

[Marmalady]

Oh, this strikes a chord.....

About a year or so after my ex and I had parted company, he was dropping my son off after taking him out one day, and asked me 'Does (Company name) mean anything to you?'
'Can't say it does' I answered. 'Why?'
'Noticed it on my bank statements' he said.
(Why he thought that I would know what appeared on his bank statements I have no idea - I didn't read his mail when we still lived together, and I certainly wouldn't be in a position to look at it when his mail wasn't even coming to this address any more, and wouldn't have opened it even if it had)
It turned out that he was still paying for buildings or contents insurance (can't remember which) on the house that we had moved out of several years before.... Because he never bothered looking at his statements, relying instead on a vague 'there should be xxx amount in my account' system, the insurance company had been happily taking the premium out ever since.
He asked me to provide him with a copy of the letter from our solicitor to prove the actual selling date of the house, to see if he could claim any of the money back. How successful he was, he never told me; however I noticed that he suddenly got himself a much better car.