A funny thing happened at the bank.....NOT

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Seems that one of our banks has been receiving deposits from DOD and erroneously attaching them to our account. This was being done electronically over a five month period, by using the numbers that DOD itself supplied.

When the owner of the money realized the error [just recently], she notified DOD to correct the transmit codes, and DOD notified the bank. the bank has put the amount in question into the correct account, and now wants to deduct it from ours. Oh, did I mention it wasn't there? yeah, we had a major bill come due and paid it using 'our' funds.

Now, we have over the course of the five months been asking each time we went there, "Are you sure of the amount? It seems high. We have x amount deposited every other week from our paychecks since we get paid on alternating weeks." they always said yes it is right.

Now, the bank wants to deduct a large amount from each of my deposits to pay back the error, in a shorter time than it took to deposit the error. I called and we settled on an amount that won't kill us, and will take a bit longer.

One thing though, and this is really irritating. DOD wants to know who owns the account that received the funds in error. This is so they can check and see if we are receiving any government benefits that they can attach to retrieve their money. Didn't I mention that the owner of the money has already been credited in full?

Now, why would DOD need to know who we are? And why in hell would the bank even consider telling them? I asked these questions of the bank officer that contacted me about it. She said she was 'trying' to avoid telling them anything about us.

I told her, "Do not, I repeat, do not tell them anything about us. It is none of their business. you have corrected the error internally by crediting the other persons account. You are recouping your loss as we agreed. DOD has no right, and no interest, in this situation any longer. If they continue to insist, then send the letters to me and I will give them to my lawyer. If you do tell them anything about us, then the credit union will be talking to my lawyer."

She agreed to not disclose anything about us, but I cannot of course be sure of that, can I?

What would you do?

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

Answers

This bank has our home loan, so leaving it not an option.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

Barefoot... time to refinance? :)

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

Thinking about it.

We refinanced in 1999 from an almost paid off 30 yr loan to a partial loan for 15 yrs. We intended to do another refinance in 2000 for a 30 yr but circumstances prevented that. We are looking to do it soon, but they have the best rates around. LOL And the rates suck as it is, too.

I am also at this time looking forward to being made regular at work in about a week. Currently I am at PTF status, which is what career employees are brought in as. [Hard to explain in full, but PTF means Part Time Flexible which means they can move me wherever they want within the cluster, which is several facilites in the general area, excluding stations which most people call post offices] Regular means I can bid for a specific position and if I get it they cannot move me unless I agree.] Also, being regular means that it will be that much harder for them to eliminate my job because they would have to first get rid fo the casuals and the PTF's before they get rid of me.

Since this bank is loosely associated with work [different organzation entirely but there for employees] I would not want to leave it if at all possible.

I just don't feel assured that they will not disclose information about us to DOD.

I must get ready for work now. Will be back in the morning. Any sggestions on how to make them assure me satisfactorily that our info will be kept private will be much appreciated.

The loan situation is going to be discussed this weekend. If we can find a better deal elsewhere, then we might just do it and leave the bank, with of course the payments left until they are satisfied.

I know it wasn't their fault, and it wasn't my fault, but we did use themoney and owe it back. that is not in dispute. Just the possibility of the bank disclosing our info to DoD irritates me to no end.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001


Srange, my bank recently decided I needed to know what its customer privacy policy was. I round-filed it, of course. (When did my bank ever have my best interests at heart??)

Sounds like the bank hasn't really established any working policy, so they're making it up as they go. Assuming there is no requirement that the bank placate DOD, then it is probably just a matter of getting the chain of command to THINK about this and to agree that they shouldn't and that everyone in the chain has been instructed accordingly. Suppose you could ask if they have a privacy policy of any kind (perhaps my bank was required by law to do this). You could also ask if there is any legal reason the bank can't blow off DOD.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001


If DOD really is serious, they'll get your records. The banks have to notify you of their intent to surrender the records first though, and give you an opportunity to hire an attorney, but all that does is stall the inevitable. The bank will give them up if presented with a proper legal request from the government.

It's probably just an overzealous DOD employee, maybe even the one who screwed up in the first place, looking for a way to cover their ass for their own blunder, in which case a little stonewalling by the bank will work.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001



Barefoot, could you open up a new account at the same CU, perhaps under a slightly different name? Then the CU can tell DoD you have withdrawn all your money and closed the account in question. If DoD persists, contact the local office of your most right-wing US Senator or Representative--they love to handle stuff like this.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

My roots are showing who or what is DOD???/ is it some kind of direst deposit?

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001

Sar... sometimes girl...

Department of Doody...

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


Couple o things that seem to have gotten lost here.

1. DoD is Dept of Defense.

2. DoD has not lost any money.

3. The correct account has been credited in full.

4. The bank is getting their money back in installments.

so there is really nothing left that concerns DoD at all. As far as they are concerned, the issue is over. Unfortunately, they don't see it that way.

I discussed this at work with a couple people who are also members of the bank and the union. [Note: three day weekend so earliest is Tuesday that I can do anything.]

I have been advised, and I tend to agree, to go in and request a notarized letter stating that they will not under any circumstances release any information relating to us to DoD. I will also call a couple lawyers and discuss it to get a legal perspective on it.

frankly, I can see no reason why they should need any info on my account, nor any reason why they would be asking.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


Sorry Barefoot, I was yanking Sar's chain...

Actualy, about 15 years ago, I had feds going after my banking info, also with no proof of wrong doing, and they got them. Bank of America was my bank at the time, and they called me to warn me the records were being demanded. My lawyers told me I could stall them, but not forever. Since I really had nothing to hide, I went "ok"...

If you want total privacy, don't use banks. In the final analysis, a bank would rather risk suit for invasion of your privay than denying the federal government of their request for your records...

Reality sucks...

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001



I got that Carl, just wasn't sure SAR would. Blonde, you know....LOL

If they were investigating me, that's one thing. But there is no reason for them to even ask for the info.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


Dare I admit I've done some contract work for the DOD?

Very likely, a junior staffer is investigating the snafu and wants to look at your records to be sure that you're not involved in any way. If the internal investigation shows that the problem was clearly a clerical error, no further action will be taken that involves getting your info. If, however, the investigator suspects kickbacks of some kind, your background and records will be examined, and there's not a while lot you can do about there until after the fact (complain to various people, as OG suggested).

Dollars to donuts, this problem will "disappear" because the DOD hates situations like this and goes out of their way to keep internal snafus from becoming too public.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


Well, I don't see how it could be kickbacks if DoD made the error, and the bank fixed it.

I mean, let's face it, the bank put the money where it was supposed to be, and is taking it from where it shouldn't have gone.

DoD is not involved anymore, unless they continue to send me money.

Anyone wanna place bets on DoD continuing to send money to my account?

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


Barefoot, this doesn't have to do with the DoD, but more to do with how banks treat customers.

We had our bank wire a direct deposit into a credit card account that my husband had to use on the road for his company expenses. His company had a policy of firing anyone who had problems keeping the credit card paid up. I went in personally and signed forms with the correct account numbers on them. I had copies of the forms. The payment was not received by our credit card company, and yet the money was gone from our account. This was thousands of dollars, and not an amount I could resend.

The bank refused to investigate where our money was. They said it must be a problem with the credit card company. End of story. I went to the bank in person three days in a row imploring everyone there to find where the money went and make sure it got credited to the right credit card account. They blew me off and said it couldn't possibly be a mistake on their part. The credit card company told me it was a problem with the way the bank wired the money.

On the third day I informed the bank president that my husband would be fired as a result of the mess his bank had created. My unemployed husband would have plenty of time to stand outside the bank with a sign detailing our experience. I also mentioned that our attorney was aware of the situation.

The problem was fixed within ten minutes. No one at the bank apologized. They are arrogant, banks are, but I don't know of a good alternative to using banks. In our town you have to have a bank account in order to cash a paycheck.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


Thanks for sharing your banking experience Helen. It sounds familiar, and I am sure many will be nodding their heads in agreement as they read your post.

I have had several incidences with banks over the years, and I always left them to go to another after the situation was resolved to my satisfaction.

The problem nowadays is that there are not many different banks left anymore. They keep merging, and if you don't keep up with the mergers, you end up moving to a different branch of the same institution. I went thru three banks inside of two months because after each move the new bank was merged with the old one. it really felt like they were trying to get my money back. LOL

Next week we will be checking out other banks to see what's new out there. I recall hearing an ad on the radio at work about our other bank offering free checking, which we do not have.....ggggrrrrrrrr~!

I really don't want to have to deal with this kind of crap, but not doing it is like letting them screw us while we pay them for the privilege.

Right now, we have a holiday weekend, my first off from work. [not paid, ggggrrrrrr] Plenty of time to check out ads and talk to relatives about their banks. My parents have been with their main bank since 1965, and they also use a couple others around town.

Maybe it's time to consider the local banks instead of the national ones?

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001



Don't let these blonde roots fool ya!!!!!! ya never know when I might "get" it!!!!

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001

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