Why even write the amount in words?

[dvandom]

A few weeks ago, I got a letter from my bank (not the statement, I won't get that for a week or two yet) and found that for the first time in years, I'd been overdrawn on my checking account (I had the money in savings, so I only got a $5 fee to transfer the money, but it was still annoying), by about a hundred bucks. I figured I'd just been careless about keeping track of things.

Turns out that when I wrote a check for $1071 to my credit card company last month, they cashed it for $1671. Despite the fact I'd written "One thousand seventy-one" on the check (I have those carbon copy checks, so I was able to confirm this), and if they'd been unsure whether my 0 was a 6 all they had to do was look a centimeter down.

In fact, I suspect they never even looked at the check itself, just at the "payment amount" box on the bill, and the bank blithely let them cash the check for more than the written amount. Once I get the statement, I think I'll take it and my checkbook down to the bank to bring this to their attention (I'll wait at least that long, in case they discover it themselves in going over my processed checks).

Comments

[lameazoid.livejournal.com]

I imagine this can be reversed as others have said. I've had numerous overdraft charges reversed due to it being thier error. The problem tends to be that one overdraft will cause anything afterwards to bounce as well. Make sure they pick these up as well.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Well, I have good overdraft protection, so they simply transferred $200 from savings to cover the $100 overage, just in case. And my paycheck hit the next day, boosting me out of danger.