I may have just lost $2,000.

October 13, 2007 8:04 PM

I deposited two checks, the bank only has deposited one into my account, the other check has cleared nonetheless, I can't find the receipt, am I totally screwed?

I deposited it with the teller (not through the atm). Online I can see my deposit slip, which is filled out and notes there are two checks and the amounts. The check that is missing is for 2k and the other one for like $450, so the total was $2450, however only $450 is showing up. I know for a fact the check cleared (however about a 5 days after the other one did?). I think one of two things happened, the teller screwed up and left off the 2 or someone at the bank stole my check. I'm going in on Monday to scream bloody murder at them, but what are the chances this will all work out fine? If a bank had an extra check at the end of the day wouldn't they either try to match it to an account or call the person who wrote the check?

posted by whoaali to work & money (25 comments total)

Sounds like you have pretty good evidence, I'd say the chances of this ending up in your favour are pretty darned good.
posted by Kickstart70 at 8:14 PM on October 13, 2007

The money went somewhere, and between the depositing bank and the originating bank they'll be able to figure out where. Go in *calmly* and ask them to look into it and they'll have it worked out within a week or so. It may just be that 2k check was held because of its size.

I've had missing deposits that were cash money work out in my favor. I'm sure this will turn out fine.
posted by BackwardsCity at 8:17 PM on October 13, 2007

Why are you asking us? Nothing we could possibly say is relevant. This is a job for your bank's customer service.

The only useful piece of information you're going to find here is "it would behoove you to be nice to the folks in customer service".
posted by dmd at 8:38 PM on October 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

You should be fine. The bank can't have its account out of balance, and any discrepency (even to a penny) needs to be accounted for.

Just let them know on Monday (you should even be able to do it by phone) and it will likely be cleared up quickly. They also microfiche all checks received, so there will be a record that it was dropped off. The fact that it cleared meant it went through the process the rest of the way just fine.

I'm 2nd'ing the amount is being held for the banks set period to ensure it clears - regardless of the fact that in reality it already has.

So relax, it will be fine.
posted by qwip at 8:44 PM on October 13, 2007

It's a check. It's either cashed or not. Even if it ends up that the bank lost it, the person who wrote it can cancel it and write a new one. Definitely worth it for $2000.
posted by smackfu at 8:47 PM on October 13, 2007

I'm mostly angry because I've tried to work this out on the phone with the bank and their response was wait and see if they get a canceled check and this can only be handled by the bank and in person. Maybe they'll search for you or something, you can file a claim, uh yeah...and yes I am nice to the customer service people I'm only screaming on the inside. I am glad to hear that this may work out, the fact the I carelessly threw my receipt in my car and now can't find it anywhere, made me think it might be all over.

And to dmd, I'm asking to see if this has ever happened to anyone else, if anyone has any knowledge of how banks handle depositing checks etc (to determine whether I've been defrauded or the bank is just incompetent),etc etc.

And you can cancel a check after its cleared?
posted by whoaali at 8:50 PM on October 13, 2007

Don't sweat it. Is the offending check an out-of-state check? If so, the money can take as long as ten days to show up in your account. If not, then recall that bank errors do sometimes occur and they can be corrected.

Regardless, stay calm, go to the bank and inquire. Even if you're really upset, letting the bank see that you're upset can only end poorly for you. Your bank doesn't want this kind of thing to happen to its customers and they have people who work full-time just to straighten this kind of thing out.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:57 PM on October 13, 2007

I've never had this happen to my personal account, but at my last job the bank "misplaced" deposits on two separate occasions. Luckily it was my habit to make a Xerox copy of all deposit slips and checks, so I had that as evidence. And they were able to handle it over the phone, both times the errant deposit was found within a matter of hours.

Good luck.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:07 PM on October 13, 2007

My bank puts a hold on large checks-- $2000 would do it. Call your bank and see if they have a similar policy-- they may just be waiting a few days to make sure it's good.
posted by RossWhite at 9:12 PM on October 13, 2007

The thing is it isn't even showing up as a "pending deposit" which appears in less than a day when I deposit something and the scanned image of my deposit slip and the amount it says I deposited are different. The money isn't in my account when it's pending, but it verifies that I have made a deposit, so I know it's more than it just hasn't cleared.

A copy of the canceled check is being emailed me by the people that wrote the check and I have the scanned image on my deposit slip, so hopefully that'll be enough for them.
posted by whoaali at 9:27 PM on October 13, 2007

Go to the bank and stay there until you are satisfied that there is a paper trail, and that the money will properly appear in your account. I've had a bank make serious errors and I got much better results by going to the bank and calmly, politely, firmly insisting that they track down the paper trail. I actually had to leave after 1/2 hour, but they called shortly after to tell me they'd found the deposit.
posted by theora55 at 9:41 PM on October 13, 2007

You'll be fine. If the cheque cleared, then it will probably show up in your account on Monday. If not, they will make this right - banks take this sort of thing seriously, and they're not stealing the money from you.
posted by Dasein at 10:30 PM on October 13, 2007

Could I suggest that you don't 'scream bloody murder' at them. In fact don't scream at all. Stay calm, show them the deposit slip and ask them to find the cheque, credit it to your account and maybe give you a little compensation for loss of use of the money in the time it takes them to do this.

Screaming at them will not help because (a) it's probably not the person you're screaming at who's made the error and s/he's only trying to do a job and doesn't need or get paid enough to be screamed at and (b) you'll lose a ton of credibility in the argument you're trying to put over.
posted by essexjan at 11:11 PM on October 13, 2007

If all else fails with the bank's customer service you may need a high-quality copy of the back and front of the check from the people who wrote it. The back of the check usually has the depositor account stamped on it, and will reveal if the account number was wrong. If it has been five days I think you are past the time required by the FDIC regs, but I am not a banker.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:25 AM on October 14, 2007

Oh, and I don't know how check 21 regs have changed the methodology.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:26 AM on October 14, 2007

Seconding RossWhite. Putting a hold on a large check is pretty standard practice.
posted by Durin's Bane at 5:57 AM on October 14, 2007

There usually is a "payment pending" on any check that has been deposited. Make sure, when you get the copy of the canceled check, that you get a copy of the front and the back. That will give you the time & date stamp and prove that the check passed through your bank.

If you have a copy of the canceled check, you're golden.
posted by clarkstonian at 7:27 AM on October 14, 2007

Ok, I've already said this once, but I guess I have to say it again, I'm not literally going to scream at anyone, it's an expression.

Thanks to everyone for your help, I have a bad feeling someone at the bank may have stolen the check and cashed it. I used to work for a criminal judge so I know it's a pretty common occurrence, but we'll see what happens tomorrow. It definitely doesn't have a hold on it, I'm hoping they just massively screwed up and deposited it in someone else's account, but given my bank's unwillingness to do anything on the phone, I think that unless I can prove in someway the teller was given the check, I'm in trouble. I guess this will go down as a very expensive lesson.
posted by whoaali at 7:56 AM on October 14, 2007

This happened to us this spring. We deposited a check via ATM and the machine took it without giving a receipt or showing it as a pending deposit. It cleared the other account but never made it into my checking acct.

In the end, several months later, we got the money. But I spent a long time on the phone with customer service and had to fax them copies of the cancelled check.

Be persistent. If I hadn't kept calling, they never would have done anything. I'd fax them something and when I called a week later they hadn't even looked at the documents.
posted by belladonna at 9:07 AM on October 14, 2007

Credited to the wrong account number is the most likely explanation. I've had it happen. Presenting a copy of the back of the cleared checked got the situation straightened out quickly. The bank acknowledged the error immediately and agreed to pay all fees associated with their error. All of the funds were credited to my my account within 2-3 days.

If you have any more trouble getting assistance, just speak directly to your branch's manager and politely lay out the situation. And don't worry about having lost the receipt. They've got more than enough records without it.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 2:00 PM on October 14, 2007

It's not just the size of the second check that could possibly cause a hold. With one of my banks (Chase) they indicated that if there are multiple deposits to an account on the same day that only a portion of the funds maybe credited immediately.

As a result of this policy, every time I deposit more than one check on the same day, the first check I deposit shows up quickly but the second one takes several days to show (followed by several more days for the funds to become available).

It sounds like you may have run into this kind of policy. Have you ever made a multi-check deposit at your bank before?
posted by NormieP at 8:18 PM on October 14, 2007

Oh, also, the first time this happened to me I called customer service and they told me that I'd have to go to the branch.

Since I was out of town at the time I went to a different branch, they also weren't able to track anything down for me and said that I had to go where the check had been physically deposited.

Finally when I got back from my trip I went to the proper branch. It took them 30 minutes to trace through the system for them to confirm that the check was being held.

So just because customer service couldn't help you, it doesn't necessarily mean that the check was put in the wrong account or stolen.
posted by NormieP at 8:23 PM on October 14, 2007

This exact thing just happened to my boss. After about two weeks, the bank found the money and put it into her account. Banks hate unaccounted for money. The fact that the check has cleared means that the bank has the money somewhere. The bank will track it down. You can help, probably, by providing information about the issuing bank, the check number, etc.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:53 PM on October 14, 2007

All you have to do, if the check has cleared but never posts to your account (say, after a month) and your bank won't do anything, is report to the person who wrote the check that it wasn't deposited into your account. The issuer reports it to their bank, who then takes the money back from your bank, because the bank didn't pay it as ordered. The issuer then writes you another check.
posted by oaf at 6:23 AM on October 15, 2007

So good news, kind of. Apparently the customer service people were just total assholes who didn't even bother to search for the check when I called them. They basically just read me the script of if its lost you have to go to the branch with a copy of the canceled check and file a claim... and when they told me there was no record of it they hadn't even looked past the main screen on my account. Lovely. But luckily the nice woman at the branch searched for it and it is being held, she has no idea why or what is happening to it, but it isn't lost, which is what matters, so I have to wait, which is fine. God if the customer service people just hadn't told me there was zero record of them ever receiving the check I wouldn't have gotten all freaked out.

I even went through my entire car for half an hour and found the receipt, bleh.
posted by whoaali at 8:56 AM on October 15, 2007