My bank didn't take my money when they were supposed to.
July 4, 2024 6:41 PM Subscribe
I have a credit card and a checking account through a big national bank. I set up the card so that money is automatically taken out from the checking account to cover the entire monthly balance. I never have a finance charge. Six months ago I put my kids summer camp on the card and I noticed that they never took the money out of my account.
So, for example let's say I usually have $3000 in charges every month and they usually take out around $3000 every month. But after I put my kids summer camp on the card, that was an extra $5000 but they only took $3000 out of my account.
Yeah, there's some weirdness about how they are defining the month, and when the card's month closes, so I thought they would take out about $8000 the month after that, but they didn't. They just took out their normal amount (which is about $3000 and covers all my normal monthly expenses) every month.
To be clear they are taking out different amounts every month, but it is always around $3000, as if they are using a predictive technology to tell how much money to take out instead of adding up how much i used the card. Or only charging me for charges made on the 1st to 27th of each month and the rest of the month doesn't count.
Then I put my property tax on the card, about $10,000. They still took out $3000 every month like clockwork. So I went to the bank, and they told me it was a glitch. I can see how much I owe them on my app, but they weren't taking it out.
So under their direction, I turned off the auto pay and turned it on again, to reset it, and we are going to see if that works. Since that point, I've gotten two emails from the bank, asking if I have any questions, and how nice it was to meet me, etc.
I'm sure it was nice to meet me, i'm guessing it's not every day someone walks into a large bank and says hey I owe you $12,000 would you like it now? and they have to say you owe us WHAT?
What happened? Do banks glitch like that? Is this just carelessness? could I have kept the money? (i spent it, it was legitimately theirs...) What questions would you ask the bank in this situation? Because I want to answer these emails and I'd love to find out what happened, but I don't know if they will tell me. Maybe you can explain?
So, for example let's say I usually have $3000 in charges every month and they usually take out around $3000 every month. But after I put my kids summer camp on the card, that was an extra $5000 but they only took $3000 out of my account.
Yeah, there's some weirdness about how they are defining the month, and when the card's month closes, so I thought they would take out about $8000 the month after that, but they didn't. They just took out their normal amount (which is about $3000 and covers all my normal monthly expenses) every month.
To be clear they are taking out different amounts every month, but it is always around $3000, as if they are using a predictive technology to tell how much money to take out instead of adding up how much i used the card. Or only charging me for charges made on the 1st to 27th of each month and the rest of the month doesn't count.
Then I put my property tax on the card, about $10,000. They still took out $3000 every month like clockwork. So I went to the bank, and they told me it was a glitch. I can see how much I owe them on my app, but they weren't taking it out.
So under their direction, I turned off the auto pay and turned it on again, to reset it, and we are going to see if that works. Since that point, I've gotten two emails from the bank, asking if I have any questions, and how nice it was to meet me, etc.
I'm sure it was nice to meet me, i'm guessing it's not every day someone walks into a large bank and says hey I owe you $12,000 would you like it now? and they have to say you owe us WHAT?
What happened? Do banks glitch like that? Is this just carelessness? could I have kept the money? (i spent it, it was legitimately theirs...) What questions would you ask the bank in this situation? Because I want to answer these emails and I'd love to find out what happened, but I don't know if they will tell me. Maybe you can explain?
Did your credit card statement show that you owed over the $3,000 that was taken out each month? I can see there being a glitch that causes their "pay amount owed" calculator to not function properly, but if the charges weren't even showing up on your statements, that seems even more odd. It would be good to confirm that you aren't paying interest for the extra if their calculator was glitching.
If the charges didn't even show up on your statements, the only thing that comes to mind is sometimes this happens to my work credit card when I have fraud and have to get a new card. Since I make so many purchases, sometimes the ones made on the old card before it was blocked can get hung up for a while. Any chance you've gotten a new card lately?
posted by Eyelash at 7:20 PM on July 4 [2 favorites]
If the charges didn't even show up on your statements, the only thing that comes to mind is sometimes this happens to my work credit card when I have fraud and have to get a new card. Since I make so many purchases, sometimes the ones made on the old card before it was blocked can get hung up for a while. Any chance you've gotten a new card lately?
posted by Eyelash at 7:20 PM on July 4 [2 favorites]
You should read your monthly credit card statements. These statements will show you how much you spent the previous month, and how much was transferred from your bank account to the credit card company. They will show you any balance (remaining money that you) carried over to the next month. They will also show you the finance charges and interest charges that you incurred.
If you make $13,000 of charges on your credit card and then the card company only takes $3,000 out of your bank account, you should have a remaining balance of $10,000. You will be charged interest on that, at a very high rate. That's not something that can just "glitch". If credit card companies were glitching like that, we'd be reading about it in the news and companies would be going out of business.
I would encourage you to understand your monthly statements more fully. See how much you charged on your card, and see how much the card company took from your bank account to pay the previous month's charges. It's good to do this each month to avoid nasty surprises. There shouldn't be "about" amounts. If your card is set to auto-pay, the amounts should match. Keeping track of this on a monthly basis will help you avoid nasty surprises.
Good luck getting this sorted out.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:11 PM on July 4 [3 favorites]
If you make $13,000 of charges on your credit card and then the card company only takes $3,000 out of your bank account, you should have a remaining balance of $10,000. You will be charged interest on that, at a very high rate. That's not something that can just "glitch". If credit card companies were glitching like that, we'd be reading about it in the news and companies would be going out of business.
I would encourage you to understand your monthly statements more fully. See how much you charged on your card, and see how much the card company took from your bank account to pay the previous month's charges. It's good to do this each month to avoid nasty surprises. There shouldn't be "about" amounts. If your card is set to auto-pay, the amounts should match. Keeping track of this on a monthly basis will help you avoid nasty surprises.
Good luck getting this sorted out.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:11 PM on July 4 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: If you make $13,000 of charges on your credit card and then the card company only takes $3,000 out of your bank account, you should have a remaining balance of $10,000. You will be charged interest on that, at a very high rate.
This is exactly what happened but I carried that balance for months and had no finance charges of any kind. It was described as a glitch by the guy at the bank who was looking at this at my request. I am baffled as this is not how I understand banks to work.
posted by Vatnesine at 8:42 PM on July 4
This is exactly what happened but I carried that balance for months and had no finance charges of any kind. It was described as a glitch by the guy at the bank who was looking at this at my request. I am baffled as this is not how I understand banks to work.
posted by Vatnesine at 8:42 PM on July 4
It is not how banks work or at least not how any bank I know of works. The bank themselves admitted to the glitch. The only question is now what. Is the bank going to fix it or will you consider moving to a bank that knows what it is doing.
I am not sure it matters why if they just fix it or don't charge you a carrying cost on the balance. The only money in question on what to keep would be any interest you may have earned on the excess balance in your cash account. My speculation on what happened is some AI gone bad. They tried to "fix" something that was already working. My guess is the outlier amounts weren't picked up or maybe it was offset in the back office but never posted to your account.
Maybe there is some sort of interest rate arbitrage you can take advantage of if it persists, but that seems like a different problem waiting to be discovered.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:28 PM on July 4 [1 favorite]
I am not sure it matters why if they just fix it or don't charge you a carrying cost on the balance. The only money in question on what to keep would be any interest you may have earned on the excess balance in your cash account. My speculation on what happened is some AI gone bad. They tried to "fix" something that was already working. My guess is the outlier amounts weren't picked up or maybe it was offset in the back office but never posted to your account.
Maybe there is some sort of interest rate arbitrage you can take advantage of if it persists, but that seems like a different problem waiting to be discovered.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:28 PM on July 4 [1 favorite]
If your credit agreement says you owe interest on the balance, then you still owe that interest, whether they mess up your statement or not. And that interest is at a high rate and compounding, so I'd get this balance paid off as soon as possible. Then move to a more competent provider.
posted by quacks like a duck at 12:12 AM on July 5 [1 favorite]
posted by quacks like a duck at 12:12 AM on July 5 [1 favorite]
I don't know the answer to your question, but I wanted to state that weird little glitches do occur with banks. I remember many years ago I tried to withdraw $50 from an automated teller machine (ATM). A message was displayed on the screen saying that the machine was out of tens and could only give me $40. Then it spit-out $50 anyway. My bank statement reflected a withdrawal of $40.
posted by alex1965 at 3:23 AM on July 5
posted by alex1965 at 3:23 AM on July 5
Sorry if this is too simple, but it’s not obvious to me that it’s ruled out. Do you have it set to autopay “statement balance” and not “full balance”? This will guarantee no finance charges but never bring your balance to 0 if you are actively using the card — charges since the last statement at the time of payment will remain because autopay usually happens long after the statement.
posted by advil at 7:14 AM on July 5 [5 favorites]
posted by advil at 7:14 AM on July 5 [5 favorites]
> but I carried that balance for months and had no finance charges of any kind.
My credit card offers "spend X don't pay for six months" deals often. I never intentionally use them, but sometimes they automatically get applied. So if my autopay was set to "pay in full", it doesn't count that deferred amount to pay until six months later.
posted by flimflam at 9:30 AM on July 5 [2 favorites]
My credit card offers "spend X don't pay for six months" deals often. I never intentionally use them, but sometimes they automatically get applied. So if my autopay was set to "pay in full", it doesn't count that deferred amount to pay until six months later.
posted by flimflam at 9:30 AM on July 5 [2 favorites]
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posted by kschang at 6:53 PM on July 4 [1 favorite]