"Bank Error in Your Favor"

[mystang52]

...except it's not $400 Monopoly money, but $2500+. Doing my best to keep it brief: I paid my AMEX bill, electronically from the AMEX site, and selected payment from the Money Market account ("MMA") of my bank (vs the checking account).
Payment duly credited to my AMEX, but no money left my - current - accounts. I recognized that the MMA on file with AMEX was closed a long time ago, 7 or more years ago when I replaced it with a different MMA from same bank.
I called my bank, they can't even find a record of that old MMA. I called AMEX and asked that the payment be backed out so I can reissue on the spot. They couldn't do that, so to play safe I made a "second" $2500 payment. I figure eventually AMEX will find they never got that first payment.
It's been a week now. I'm calling both companies again, on Monday. I'm concerned about another possibility: AMEX did get paid, but from someone else's account, a someone who for whatever reason hasn't noticed $2500 is missing. Any suggestions?

 

[gamboolman]

ms gamboolgal and I will not use a Debit Card or ATM.

Here is why: Back about 32 to 34 year ago ms gamboolgal and I used the ATM alot.

We got transferred to another job location and had to move. We went to close Bank Account and we had something like ~$1,500 too much in our account.
We had receipts for every time we had used ATM and went and showed the Bank.
They would not accept that the money was not ours.
We closed the account after much arguing and we kept the money.

But what if the mistake had been in the other direction? Back in them days $1,500 was like $100K to us now.

So have not used Debit or ATM ever again since then.

Lifes A Dance And You Learn As You Go
gamboolman.....

 

[Drake3287]

One things for sure, it'll eventually get figured out by them. They have to many checks and balances for it not too. Do yourself a favor and document all your call's/emails to AMEX, it'll save you down the road when they finally call you on it.

I think many of us have been in these similar situations, these big corporations aren't use to honest customers like ourselves and simply aren't equipped to deal with unusual problems.

 

[sanfanciscotreat]

Wrote a check to a friend September 1 this year. He has cashed the check but it has not cleared the bank. What happens when I close the accct next year and it still has not cleared?

 

[Cerys]

Wrote a check to a friend September 1 this year. He has cashed the check but it has not cleared the bank. What happens when I close the accct next year and it still has not cleared?

After 6 months the check will have staledated and won't cash.

If the check was a small amount, it's very possible that check was lost. There is an amount the bank won't search for -- they will just write it off. When I worked in banking, the processing writer off amount was like 50 bucks, and that was 25 years ago.

I send birthday checks back home to a number of nieces and nephews, and out of the dozens I've sent two were cashed on their end, and the money never left my account. Happend when I worked there, and there's nothing my bank can do, because if it's written off there's no way to know who wrote it off. Smaller banks process through larger banks, who process through the Feds, and they process back to your bank. Even with all the automatic processing, there's still human error.

 

[pb4uski]

.... Any suggestions?

Just be patient and don't sweat it. What has happened is that they reduced your account balance and put the other side in suspense.... when they get you money from the bank they will record the deposit and put the other side in suspense... in both cases the entry will have your account number so the two entries will be "cleared"... it usually happens automatically as when the system runs overnight it matches all entries for the same account number and amount.

Since they didn't get the money from your bank the erroneous reduction to your account will sit in suspense until it is cleared. At some point it will show up on an exception or aging report so they will eventually figure out that they never got the money from your bank and will contact you.

 

[mystang52]

Just be patient and don't sweat it. What has happened is that they reduced your account balance and put the other side in suspense.... when they get you money from the bank they will record the deposit and put the other side in suspense... in both cases the entry will have your account number so the two entries will be "cleared"... it usually happens automatically as when the system runs overnight it matches all entries for the same account number and amount.

Since they didn't get the money from your bank the erroneous reduction to your account will sit in suspense until it is cleared. At some point it will show up on an exception or aging report so they will eventually figure out that they never got the money from your bank and will contact you.

UPDATE: All in all, it didn't take that long. Today, some 6 weeks after the initial transaction, AMEX reversed that erroneous payment. At least I earned about 5 cents in interest.