Bank giving away free money!

[proud2BlibKansan]

This happened a couple days ago and I waited to check my account before I posted it. Plus the Olberman stuff kind of took over DU this weekend.

Anyhow, I went to an ATM near my work to get some cash. It was not my bank. The ATM gave me $10 too much. So I went in the bank, showed the teller my receipt, debit card and the cash I had received and explained what had happened. The receipt showed the amount I had asked for, $10 less than I received. First thing the teller said to me was "You want to do WHAT?" I said I wanted to give the $10 back to the bank. She got the teller next to her, they both looked at the money and receipt and decided they needed a supervisor.

So the supervisor (who happened to be the branch manager) came over and he said this was very unusual, they weren't sure what to do and they were calling the ATM company to find out what to do. The cash I had received was in 20s, so I said just give me my money back, swap one of those 20s for a $10 and we can call it even. He laughed and said well if I didn't mind waiting they would take care of me as soon as they heard back from the ATM company.

A few minutes later, the manager came back over and said well no one is answering the phone at the ATM company, they must be already gone for the day. And he handed me my money, receipt and card back and said "I really appreciate what you are trying to do. But it's much easier for us if you just take the money." I said "So you are GIVING me $10?" He said "Well, you might want to check with YOUR bank, but they are probably going to take the full amount from your account, not the amount shown on the receipt."

The teller then thanked me for doing the right thing, called me 'sweetheart' and told me to have a nice day. The manager said in all his years in the banking business he had never known anyone to try to give money BACK to the bank. And he laughed.

So I left.

I called a friend who works at a bank and my niece who also works at a local bank and they both agreed that yes, my bank would probably charge my account the full amount, plus an ATM fee so it's perfectly reasonable for me to keep the $10.

Well today I checked and the transaction was posted to my account.

I profited $10.

I've told a couple friends about this and they thought I was crazy to try to give the money back. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, I am a huge believer in Karma. I will now donate the $10 to a local charity. That seems like the right thing to do as well.

I also probably won't use that ATM anymore. If it could give me too much cash, it could probably just as easily give me less than I ask for. :)

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Multiple banks were offline yesterday. BoA, Wells Fargo and Chase all locked down their access.

WalMart was reportedly only able to take credit transactions (which go through MC/Visa, etc - not the banks) as debit cards couldn't be processed.

Google it if you are curious. There are a lot of sites talking about it and the Conspiracy Theory sites are going bezerk.

I heard it may have had to do with the time change and wanting to prevent time-related errors, but I don't recall time changes ever causing this in the past.

[negativenihil]

15. wait what?!

i've been unable to make any purchases with my debit card today (tried to buy a book for my kindle...).

there's plenty of money in my account

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. See post #13. It appeared to be rather wide spread.

Those were just 2 quick google news links. I work for a bank. It was hit or miss for ATM/Debit yesterday. I wish I could tell you why, but at the time I left, we didn't know anything.

[LiberalFighter]

2. You did the right thing. You will have a clear conscious too.

There have been several times that I received too much change back and I returned it. One time, I didn't find out til later and went back to return it. I kept thinking it wasn't the right amount. When I had time I checked again.

[subterranean]

3. An ATM once gave me an extra $20.

Two bills were stuck together, so I got $120 instead of $100. I felt no need to report the error to the bank. They've taken much more than that from me in bogus fees over the years.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. This wasn't my bank

So I can't make that claim.

[SoCalDem]

5. Never heard of an ATM that dispenses $10 bills

Every one I have ever used, uses only 20-dollar bills.. It;s always annoyed me, because if you want $50, you have to take $60..:)

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. That's what my friend who works at a bank said

She said none of them have $10 bills. But I was given the choice to withdraw an amount divisible by 10! How come?

[Goblinmonger]

7. Some of them in my town go by 10s.

I like them but couldn't tell you which ones they are right off the top of my head. Just know I like it when they offer it to me. It is obviously easier to just go by 20s.

[SoCalDem]

8. Must be a Kansas thing

:)

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Except this bank was in MO

LOL

[SoCalDem]

11. Well.. there goes that theory

:hi:

[haifa lootin]

I've never seen one that offered odd multiples of $10

did it give you a $10 bill in addition to some 20s? Very strange.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. No it gave me all 20s

[haifa lootin]

25. But any number of 20s would have to add up to even multiples of 10.

There is no way to break 20s down into 30 or 50 or 70 etc. How much did you ask for?

[datasuspect]

12. you've never used an ATM in the ghetto

they dispense $10 bills in economically devastated areas like Chicago's west and south sides.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Ah! This was in a low income area

[negativenihil]

17. i've got a few right near me - metro boston area n/t

[kath]

22. Mine does 20s and 5s - so if I don't want all 20s, I ask for something like $95.

[Contrary1]

9. Similar thing happened with me several years ago at a drive-through...

Cashed my pay check and received $20 too much. Went inside to tell them about it. The supervisor got very huffy and told me that their tellers were trained well, and didn't make mistakes like that.

I asked if there was a way they could check right then, and she got even more irate telling me there was no need to check. It was clearly me who who made the error.

Next morning the phone rang, it was the bank. Turns out, they were short $20, could I return it?

I responded with "What $20?"

[haifa lootin]

18. Why did you go inside instead of just telling the drive thru person?

I've had that happen a few times and just sent back the extra money through the air tube thing...

[Contrary1]

20. I usually just pulled forward and out of the way if someone was behind me...

This was quite some time ago, only one drive-through, and on a busy Friday night.

Geez, I'm old enough to remember when most people got a pay check every Friday. I'm sufficiently depressed now. :hi:

[Ruby the Liberal]

13. ATM/Debit issue media links:

AZ: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/money/computer-issues-plague-several-valley-banks-11062010

FL: http://www.ocregister.com/news/problems-274801-customers-bank.html

[Generic Brad]

16. They may have loaded the wrong bills in the ATM

If they did, it would be an easy thing for them to determine which cardholders received too much money. I would guess that they may have decided to take a loss rather than have a bad public relation episode.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

21. Or faulty software gave you their last $10 when another $10 was due you. In that

situation, with $20s the smallest denomination in stock, the software would either have to shortchange you $10 or give you an extra $10

I got stuck in line for an extra 10 minutes at the supermarket once because the bar-code-scanner software would not register an item that cost more than $99.99, Software can do strange things in certain fairly rare situations that no one ever considered for the initial specs.

[Beartracks]

24. Time to collect $200!

[haifa lootin]

26. If I may pick a small nit...the barcode scanner software has nothing to do with the price,

it just identifies the product and tells some other program to look up the selling price in whatever database it uses.
:-)

[Kat45]

27. That's interesting. I didn't know that. n/t