#1 Errors in math occur but are almost always caught by the bank if they're "unbalanced".
#2 You lose unless you can show it was the banks error
#3 Yes, mistakes happen
- do you use personal finance software like Quicken?
- when was the last time you knew you were in balance with the bank?
- look at the MICR encoding in the bottom right corner of your checks, that's the amount they actually posted for. Same with deposits.
Banks balance everything daily, all cash taken in and paid out to the cash on hand, deposited items to deposit slips. Mistakes happen and the exact amount of the error would give a good hint where to look. If it's divisible by 9 then it's likely a transposition (eg $527 instead of $257 would create an error of $270) in your case a $3 check posting for $300 would be a logical place to look and an easy error to make by adding a decimal. Also, if something posted to your account for an extra $300 then some other account
I'm familiar with all you're saying. In fact, I used to work in a bank, and I balanced everything daily. No easy errors here. Both I and the "personal banker" know what to look for. We did find one check that posted for 20 cents more than it was written for, so if we can find 20 cents you'd think something on the order of $300 +/- some centavos would jump up and slap us in the face.
Still at a loss. I asked the guy today if there's anyone he can kick this upstairs to, and he said he didn't think so. I think there is. If it's not resolved I might ask my neighbor to look into it -- he's a VP at the bank, though I don't know what his particular bailiwick is.
Keep the answers coming; something might help.
Steve.
