POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your money?
POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your money?
OK, we are not talking about getting the wrong change at the cash register or buying car, but with something to do with banking, saving, investing.
Has a financial firm made a mistake with your money?
If you have had multiple mistakes made, then please vote on the largest monetary one if you can. However, I can see that a small mistake was not fixed and is more irritating than a large mistake that was fixed.
I suspect that the first two choices will have almost no votes.
I have had a 6-figure mistake committed with my money by a financial firm, but it was fixed in about 3 weeks.
This poll was prompted by this thread: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 2&t=146381
I probably should have used "not yet" instead of "never"
Has a financial firm made a mistake with your money?
If you have had multiple mistakes made, then please vote on the largest monetary one if you can. However, I can see that a small mistake was not fixed and is more irritating than a large mistake that was fixed.
I suspect that the first two choices will have almost no votes.
I have had a 6-figure mistake committed with my money by a financial firm, but it was fixed in about 3 weeks.
This poll was prompted by this thread: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 2&t=146381
I probably should have used "not yet" instead of "never"
Last edited by livesoft on Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:03 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I have (to my recollection) never given any financial firm, ever, any discretion. So, any mistake would have been mine, not theirs.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I was reminded in a PM that this poll is about mistakes the firm made and not mistakes that you made with your money.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I have never given any financial firm, ever, any discretion. Nevertheless, I have given them a non-discretionary order to move money from account A to account B, and had the money disappear from account A and not appear in account B. I feel such a mistake counts as theirs, not mine.john94549 wrote:I have (to my recollection) never given any financial firm, ever, any discretion. So, any mistake would have been mine, not theirs.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
About 17 years ago, a bank made a computer error that had them thinking that I owed them a few dollars short of $100-million! (Yes, really.) When I started dealing with them, they were a local community bank. Within six months, they were sold twice to a regional and then a national bank. I assume that the error had to do with integrating their various computer records.
In any event, they immediately shut down all of my personal and business accounts. I was not amused, to say the least, especially since they didn't bother to contact me before they acted. When I reached the headquarters of the new bank and asked why they hadn't called, the bank officer replied, "We find that when we call people, they get upset!" At that point, I became upset.
It was straightened out, but some sort of red flag remained on my record for several years. I found that out when, four years later, I moved to Boston and tried to open an account at Bank of America.
BofA: "I'm afraid that we can't let you open a checking account. I see there was a problem with a bank in California."
Me: "You do understand how a demand deposit account works, don't you? I'm the one who's trusting you!"
At the next bank I went to, the officer looked at the printout and said, "Clearly, there was some sort of computer error in California."
In any event, they immediately shut down all of my personal and business accounts. I was not amused, to say the least, especially since they didn't bother to contact me before they acted. When I reached the headquarters of the new bank and asked why they hadn't called, the bank officer replied, "We find that when we call people, they get upset!" At that point, I became upset.
It was straightened out, but some sort of red flag remained on my record for several years. I found that out when, four years later, I moved to Boston and tried to open an account at Bank of America.
BofA: "I'm afraid that we can't let you open a checking account. I see there was a problem with a bank in California."
Me: "You do understand how a demand deposit account works, don't you? I'm the one who's trusting you!"
At the next bank I went to, the officer looked at the printout and said, "Clearly, there was some sort of computer error in California."
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I have twice had banks (one a mid-size regional bank, one a mega-bank) transpose digits in transactions. Both times it was fixed quickly and easily after contacting customer service. As it happens the amounts were less than $1,000, but it certainly could have been different if other digits had been transposed.
Edited to add: The first time was surprising as heck, as it was a transaction that, as far as I knew, was entirely automated. The second time was less surprising, having seen it happen before.
Edited to add: The first time was surprising as heck, as it was a transaction that, as far as I knew, was entirely automated. The second time was less surprising, having seen it happen before.
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Roth is a name, not an acronym. If you type ROTH, you're just yelling about retirement accounts.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
[OT comment removed by admin LadyGeek]
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
We have been fortunate. No financial firm has stolen money from us yet.
Emotionless, prognostication free investing. Ignoring the noise and economists since 1979. Getting rich off of "smart people's" behavioral mistakes.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Yes, my online savings account was debited to pay somebody's land-line phone bill in Arkansas. I had to go through every hoop you can imagine to "prove" to them that I didn't do it. I've never paid a bill from the account. And I've never even been in Arkansas, much less had a land-line phone there. They finally put the money back into the account 2 1/2 months later.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I wasn't sure how to answer the poll, and this might not be the kind of mistake the OP is asking about, but in my pre-Boglehead days I had some money I had inherited as a minor that had been placed in an account at Prudential. I checked in with my "adviser" about once a year, but the money was in some kind of mutual fund and I was happy to just leave it there and, I expected, watch it grow. One day, I got my monthly statement and saw that my adviser had moved all my money into two new funds, both of which would incur a fee if I sold within five years. I was annoyed that she would "lock me in" to a fund like that without discussing it with me first, but was too much of a wuss to call her out on it. I opened an account at another financial services firm, had them contact Prudential on my behalf to arrange for the funds to be transferred in-kind, waited five years, sold the funds, and bought index funds.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
A number of years ago a check I wrote for $200 was keyed in as $2,000. This was around the time when the bank stopped mailing canceled checks, making images available online. I was easily able to get the image in question. When I called the bank (a large regional bank since acquired by a larger bank) the woman I talked to was really snotty and made it clear she thought I was trying to defraud the bank or something. But it was pretty open and shut so she had no choice but to admit the error. What really frosted me was that it had taken the bank all of 1 business day to remove the $2000 from my account when the check was written, but 7 days to restore the $1,800 they erroneously debited.
Don't do something. Just stand there!
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Way, way back in ancient days my bank recorded mortgage payments in a little book similar to an old savings account passbook. Every month I would deliver the book with my payment to the bank where a clerk would calculate how much was interest and how much was principal payment, and record it in the book. One day it struck me their latest entry didn't look right so I calculated it myself. We didn't match. As I went back further I discovered they had calculated it wrong for almost a year. So I had to go to the bank with my little book and waste a couple hours teaching the clerk how to calculate interest payments and having her correct all the bad months in their records and my little book.
The surest way to know the future is when it becomes the past.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Of course. Just the other day I wrote a check for $12.50 and the receiving bank cashed it for $12.00. (My bank said only the receiving bank could fix it.) On at least 2 occasions banks have withdrawn money from my checking account because someone keyed in the wrong account #. I watch my statements and was able to spot it. Not large amounts, but the first time it happened I was a poor student and $50 was huge.
The most annoying "mistake" was actually done by Vanguard. I had opened my Vanguard account with a taxable Asset Allocation fund. Some years later I decided that Balanced Index was a better AA for me. I moved some of the AA fund into BI and switched my ongoing purchases to BI only. When they closed their Asset Allocation fund and transferred all holdings into Balanced Index, instead of depositing the balance in my existing BI account, they opened a new account so I had 2 instances of the same fund -- for no good reason.
The most annoying "mistake" was actually done by Vanguard. I had opened my Vanguard account with a taxable Asset Allocation fund. Some years later I decided that Balanced Index was a better AA for me. I moved some of the AA fund into BI and switched my ongoing purchases to BI only. When they closed their Asset Allocation fund and transferred all holdings into Balanced Index, instead of depositing the balance in my existing BI account, they opened a new account so I had 2 instances of the same fund -- for no good reason.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Over the years I have had several checks cleared for an incorrect amount.
One was for a full credit card payment where the dropped the fifty cents off the end of the amount which caused interest to be charged for that month. When I called the 800 number it was interesting that the first person I talked to could quickly see an image of the check so he then reversed the interest charge.
One was for a full credit card payment where the dropped the fifty cents off the end of the amount which caused interest to be charged for that month. When I called the 800 number it was interesting that the first person I talked to could quickly see an image of the check so he then reversed the interest charge.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Just last week I was at the credit union getting $60 cash and a couple $10 rolls of quarters ($80 total). The receipt had an $80 debit listed, but my post-transaction balance dropped $100. Fortunately I noticed before signing and got the teller to redo the transaction. No big deal.
Reading the stories on the forum makes me careful to save each and every confirmation and account statement. Documentation seems to be the best defense.
Reading the stories on the forum makes me careful to save each and every confirmation and account statement. Documentation seems to be the best defense.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
It seems there's no options about banks making errors with their money???? Is that intentional?
As mr monopoly said "bank error in your favor.... Collect 200$"
As mr monopoly said "bank error in your favor.... Collect 200$"
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
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Last edited by mwm158 on Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Looks like I was the first to vote Yes and not rectified. My wife had a business account with Bank of America, and on more than one occasion, when she inserted a batch of checks into the ATM, they failed to account for all of them. Like, she put in ten checks and they said, eight checks received. When we complained, the bank temporarily credited the money, which is not very useful since they can take it back later. They spent 45 days "investigating," and then declared the checks to be lost. One time, a check was found several blocks away! This never happened with Chase. We ended up switching to Chase, and also getting a home check scanner so she can keep the check in case there is an issue later. I guess she technically didn't lose money, but it's awkward to ask a client for another check because the ATM ate the last one.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Yes. They were a big playerr in the mortgage-credit-great recession. Held direct stock and indirectly held this entity in the SP, MF, their bonds, and money market bills. I will never trust them or any FI again.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Strangely, I've never experienced a mistake with "electronic money," such as bank transfers, mutual fund accounts or the like — despite my fears that something's bound to go wrong at any time.
But I once went to a bank to exchange $200 in damaged physical currency for new bills. These were $20 bills that were in fragments, from being folded in a zippered leather belt, forgotten about for years, and abraded into pieces from the wear. The bank teller was understandably not used to dealing with fragmented $20 bills, because when I got outside the bank, I realized she'd counted the pieces wrong and given me $240 in the exchange!
Of course, my conscience (eventually) got the better of me and I went back inside to the teller, where we re-counted the pieces and I returned the extra $40 — much to her relief as she said the bank would certainly have detected her error and her responsibility for it.
But I once went to a bank to exchange $200 in damaged physical currency for new bills. These were $20 bills that were in fragments, from being folded in a zippered leather belt, forgotten about for years, and abraded into pieces from the wear. The bank teller was understandably not used to dealing with fragmented $20 bills, because when I got outside the bank, I realized she'd counted the pieces wrong and given me $240 in the exchange!
Of course, my conscience (eventually) got the better of me and I went back inside to the teller, where we re-counted the pieces and I returned the extra $40 — much to her relief as she said the bank would certainly have detected her error and her responsibility for it.
Last edited by SimpleGift on Sun Sep 07, 2014 4:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Transferring an IRA account from one bank to another resulted in errors on both ends and my funds in limbo for well over a month. When they finally got it straightened out and my funds accredited to my account, I could no longer get the 3% Rate on the CD. For 7-years I get a monthly reminder of their screwup.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I was thinking once, but in reading through the thread, instances have surfaced in my mind of most things other people have posted. Money disappearing in transit, one check deposited in a bunch of checks via atm vanishes, mortgage payment taken out twice, and so on. Everything got fixed eventually except the vanishing atm check, with that I had to get another one from the payer.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I think the word you're looking for here is not mistake, but theft.A long time ago I decided to play blackjack for $2 a hand at the casino. I was bored, and the expected loss was worth the entertainment. Every time I hit blackjack, the dealer gave me more money than he should have ($5 gain instead of $3). I didn't say anything, and ended up making $20 or so for the night. Casino error in my favor? Do they count as a financial firm?
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Not theftlululu wrote:I think the word you're looking for here is not mistake, but theft.A long time ago I decided to play blackjack for $2 a hand at the casino. I was bored, and the expected loss was worth the entertainment. Every time I hit blackjack, the dealer gave me more money than he should have ($5 gain instead of $3). I didn't say anything, and ended up making $20 or so for the night. Casino error in my favor? Do they count as a financial firm?
"Don't trust everything you read on the Internet"- Abraham Lincoln
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I had a real-life version of that Monopoly card once back in the 1980s. I made a cash deposit of $100 but the bank teller was unable to print the verification on the deposit slip because the ribbon (ribbon?!) on the printing device was not working. The teller stamped all 3 copies of the deposit slip with his stamp which read, "Deposits subject to collection, unless cash" and handed my copy back to me.privateer79 wrote:It seems there's no options about banks making errors with their money???? Is that intentional?
As mr monopoly said "bank error in your favor.... Collect 200$"
When I got my next bank statement, I saw that there had been not one but two $100 deposits credited to my account that day. It dawned on me that the bank must have processed both of their copies of my deposit slip as separate deposits. I figured the bank would quickly figure out what they did and take their $100 back. But they never did.
I always think about that Monopoly card whenever I tell this story.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Mass Mutual received and cashed a check for $1800 just after one of my sons were born. Funds never made it to any account. The rep couldn't help, but I was negligent due to being way too busy with business activities to hunt it down. I had actually forgot about it until I did a lost asset search on myself and my family members and
found a few items and one that looked that it was that but it was not. I do remember submitting the copy of the cashed check to the rep and then
yelling at him on the phone a few times before I stop talking to him. He remained my inlaws pet for many years afterwards which always irked me and
caused friction in my family as well. Of course they ended up saying I was nuts for being upset...
Sometimes I wish I would have dealt with and resolved the issue but more glad I discontinued relations with that rep!
found a few items and one that looked that it was that but it was not. I do remember submitting the copy of the cashed check to the rep and then
yelling at him on the phone a few times before I stop talking to him. He remained my inlaws pet for many years afterwards which always irked me and
caused friction in my family as well. Of course they ended up saying I was nuts for being upset...
Sometimes I wish I would have dealt with and resolved the issue but more glad I discontinued relations with that rep!
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I've had lots of weird things happen over the years.
Probably the biggest mistake involved my bank, but was the fault of my employer. It was the early 90's, long before everyone could do their banking over the internet. High tech meant using a touch tone phone to do balance inquiries or pay off a credit card at 3am.
To cut a long story short, I was away from home for a year, and should have received a direct deposit from my employer equivalent to 6.5 months wages, all at once. Instead, the payroll office screwed up and deposited the equivalent of 7.0 months wages.
Payroll caught the error, and with no notification, immediately yanked back the entire 7 months wages. (I later read in the direct deposit agreement "[Employer] reserves the right to retrieve amounts deemed in error.")
If this happened today, I would have been alerted in real time as each transaction played out. But if my memory is correct, I think I entered WTF mode after doing a balance inquiry a few days after the payment should have been credited.
It took a little over 2 weeks to restore the correct amount into my bank account. Fortunately I had enough cushion to avoid bouncing any checks in the interim...
Probably the biggest mistake involved my bank, but was the fault of my employer. It was the early 90's, long before everyone could do their banking over the internet. High tech meant using a touch tone phone to do balance inquiries or pay off a credit card at 3am.
To cut a long story short, I was away from home for a year, and should have received a direct deposit from my employer equivalent to 6.5 months wages, all at once. Instead, the payroll office screwed up and deposited the equivalent of 7.0 months wages.
Payroll caught the error, and with no notification, immediately yanked back the entire 7 months wages. (I later read in the direct deposit agreement "[Employer] reserves the right to retrieve amounts deemed in error.")
If this happened today, I would have been alerted in real time as each transaction played out. But if my memory is correct, I think I entered WTF mode after doing a balance inquiry a few days after the payment should have been credited.
It took a little over 2 weeks to restore the correct amount into my bank account. Fortunately I had enough cushion to avoid bouncing any checks in the interim...
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Inherited an IRA held at Chase. There were about 6 steps involved in getting it transferred to me and then out to another custodian. Starting at the branch with a banker who didn't think that Chase handled inherited IRAs (as I was still patient then I kindly explained the process to him), there were mistakes at every step. Took several months. Had to initiate calls myself to resolve every mistake or it would likely have never been completed. At every call, I was helped by friendly (and actually helpful) customer service individuals who, in every case, expedited that particular step. Weird way to do business. Hope it is the last time I every have to deal with that bank.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
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Last edited by mwm158 on Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I've had a few mistakes here and there, but these are couple that I remember.
1. Credit union "forgot" to transfer money from one account to another that I had initiated. This resulted in a CC payment being returned. While I was on vacation in Australia! This was back before the internets/email/cheap phone calls. After a few long distance phone calls, everything was taken care of and they offered to write apology letters to each of the bounced parties in addition to paying all feeds. Almost bounced our mortgage payment too which could have been bad!
2. This one really irked me. I had a cash back card that would send me a check of 1% of all my purchases once a year. The CC was taken over by BofA. They sent me a check, approx $250, as expected, but it *bounced*! And then they couldn't figure out what happened and it took over a month to get it resolved. It got escalated several levels and I finally told the guy that if this didn't get resolved in 1 week, I would be reporting the check signee (some VP over at BofA) over to the attorney general for writing a bad check. It got taken care of remarkably fast after that. I kept thinking: "You are a bank! How can you bounce a check!?" It probably happened because some account didn't get funds after BofA bought them.
1. Credit union "forgot" to transfer money from one account to another that I had initiated. This resulted in a CC payment being returned. While I was on vacation in Australia! This was back before the internets/email/cheap phone calls. After a few long distance phone calls, everything was taken care of and they offered to write apology letters to each of the bounced parties in addition to paying all feeds. Almost bounced our mortgage payment too which could have been bad!
2. This one really irked me. I had a cash back card that would send me a check of 1% of all my purchases once a year. The CC was taken over by BofA. They sent me a check, approx $250, as expected, but it *bounced*! And then they couldn't figure out what happened and it took over a month to get it resolved. It got escalated several levels and I finally told the guy that if this didn't get resolved in 1 week, I would be reporting the check signee (some VP over at BofA) over to the attorney general for writing a bad check. It got taken care of remarkably fast after that. I kept thinking: "You are a bank! How can you bounce a check!?" It probably happened because some account didn't get funds after BofA bought them.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Large amount.
A very large amount of a 401k transfer, the team working on the transfer invested in the wrong mutual fund in my TIRA, and I just waited for a couple of days and then did a transfer of all funds to the correct mutual fund. At least the money was not lost in cyberspace.
Thanks for reading.
A very large amount of a 401k transfer, the team working on the transfer invested in the wrong mutual fund in my TIRA, and I just waited for a couple of days and then did a transfer of all funds to the correct mutual fund. At least the money was not lost in cyberspace.
Thanks for reading.
~ Member of the Active Retired Force since 2014 ~
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
@socalsri, your last anecdote reminded me of the guy that foreclosed on Bank of America a few years ago: http://business.time.com/2011/06/06/hom ... hat-right/
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
The idea of mistakes implies accidental.
The majority aren't in my view.
The majority aren't in my view.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
My first online bank gave me the login information for someone else account. It took me a month and 5 telephone calls to get the problem fixed. On the four call I got the CSR and his manager's name. I wait a week and they didn't call me, email me or sent me anything in the mail. The 5th CSR I talked to I ended up screaming at and then screaming at the manager. I finally got my log-in information the next day mailed overnight.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I think you should further break down the voting into whether the mistake was in your favor or not. My button would be "Yes, and it was never rectified, but it was in my favor so no hard feelings."
I had one in my favor about ten years ago. I don't remember the details now, but it involved an check I was trying to send through online billpay (back when it was fairly new) to cover rent, and then for some reason I called in and cancelled the check, and it never came out of my account. But my landlord somehow deposited it anyway. I don't remember the exact details, but I ended up calling my landlord and seeing if he needed another check and he said the money had stayed in his account, but it also did not ever come out of my account. I ended up calling the bank and explaining, but they said it was fine, that the check had been cancelled, so I just left it alone. I watched to see if it would come out in the next few months but it never did.
I don't know if the bank messed up or if my landlord was confused, but that landlord, while fair, was not one to overlook missing money, so I suspect the bank somehow messed it up. It was Wachovia, back before they were bought out.
I had one in my favor about ten years ago. I don't remember the details now, but it involved an check I was trying to send through online billpay (back when it was fairly new) to cover rent, and then for some reason I called in and cancelled the check, and it never came out of my account. But my landlord somehow deposited it anyway. I don't remember the exact details, but I ended up calling my landlord and seeing if he needed another check and he said the money had stayed in his account, but it also did not ever come out of my account. I ended up calling the bank and explaining, but they said it was fine, that the check had been cancelled, so I just left it alone. I watched to see if it would come out in the next few months but it never did.
I don't know if the bank messed up or if my landlord was confused, but that landlord, while fair, was not one to overlook missing money, so I suspect the bank somehow messed it up. It was Wachovia, back before they were bought out.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Had a $6k fixed income note mature, and Vanguard accidentally redeemed it for $60k instead. I did call and alert them to it; I figure someone would have noticed soon anyway.
Also had lump sum principal payments on our mortgage treated as my regular month's payment, or rejected because it wasn't as much as our regular payment, but those have been smaller in magnitude. I've never had a mortgage servicer that hasn't messed up principal payments at least once.
Also had lump sum principal payments on our mortgage treated as my regular month's payment, or rejected because it wasn't as much as our regular payment, but those have been smaller in magnitude. I've never had a mortgage servicer that hasn't messed up principal payments at least once.
I'm not a financial advisor, I just play one on the Internet.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Many years ago I purchased some TIPS from Vanguard. At the time, I did not have access to the internet and I made a phone call to Vanguard to make the purchase. When I received the confirmation in the mail from Vanguard, they had not done what I had asked them to do. I called them and they retrieved the recording of the phone call, acknowledged they had made an error, and corrected it.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
USAA. Over $50k. Fixed (by me). Unforgiveable.
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
In a long life, I've had many. The most egregious was when a a highly respected N.Y. business bank, (with a rhyming nickname) now defunct, had a theft (so they told me) of a bag of checks being delivered to the (then) clearinghouse. One of them was a check I had deposited from my client, to whom I owed fiduciary duty. I had a receipt for the deposit, but when the bank statement arrived, the check was not listed as a credit. No explanation was given. When I called the bank, they told me the theft story. When I reminded them that such an occurrence was their problem, not mine. They "advised" me to "just get your client to write another check". That was a big mistake on their part which resulted in them messengering over a corrected statement to me within the hour, and needless to say, lose our business. I'm still amazed that a large respected bank would have employees who could make such a serious error. I have never failed to reconcile my checking account and credit card statements ever since.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I had bought some sweets at a local store. The transaction was for $11.00 or something like that. Imagine my surprise when I logged into Schwab and saw that my account had been debited by $1100! I called them immediately; they said that it would take a couple of days to fix the issue and it did get fixed as the had promised. I was afraid a check might bounce or some other transaction might fail; fortunately, I was OK for the time it took for the issue to be fixed.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I had a few checks I wrote in the 1990's that never cleared my checking account despite the payee indicating that they deposited the checks and had the money in their bank account. So "Bank Error in My Favor" for a few hundred dollars. I also had a store-brand credit charge that the chain indicated was an error on their part (not fraud). Someone mis-keyed an account number.
70/30 AA for life, Global market cap equity. Rebalance if fixed income <25% or >35%. Weighted ER< .10%. 5% of annual portfolio balance SWR, Proportional (to AA) withdrawals.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Two stories:
Story #1: For years, before I was a Boglehead, I would rush to the bank just before April 15 and put the maximum amount into a minimal interest rate TIRA. One year I finally got wise and went to the bank before the end of the year to consolidate all of these accounts and switch them to a decent-paying investment. It was arranged, but after April 15 I got a notice that my low-interest TIRAs had been renewed. I went to the bank and complained to the employee that had arranged the transaction. His response as to why the bank had failed to take the correct action: "But it wasn't my fault!"
Story #2: I was on vacation in Spain and went to a bank one night to withdraw Euros. I put my debit card into the ATM, but I was confused by the fact that keypads in Spanish ATMs contain only numbers, not the letters I was accustomed to in the U.S. After trying to put in my code several times ("Let's see, I think "d" should be "2"), the machine ate my card. I went to the bank the next day to ask for my card back. The bank employee laughed and took me to the ATM machine. He pushed a button which produced my card, which had been cut into many tiny strips of plastic.
Story #1: For years, before I was a Boglehead, I would rush to the bank just before April 15 and put the maximum amount into a minimal interest rate TIRA. One year I finally got wise and went to the bank before the end of the year to consolidate all of these accounts and switch them to a decent-paying investment. It was arranged, but after April 15 I got a notice that my low-interest TIRAs had been renewed. I went to the bank and complained to the employee that had arranged the transaction. His response as to why the bank had failed to take the correct action: "But it wasn't my fault!"
Story #2: I was on vacation in Spain and went to a bank one night to withdraw Euros. I put my debit card into the ATM, but I was confused by the fact that keypads in Spanish ATMs contain only numbers, not the letters I was accustomed to in the U.S. After trying to put in my code several times ("Let's see, I think "d" should be "2"), the machine ate my card. I went to the bank the next day to ask for my card back. The bank employee laughed and took me to the ATM machine. He pushed a button which produced my card, which had been cut into many tiny strips of plastic.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Bank was late with a billpay, which incurred a late charge. After BBB and state complaints, the bank paid the late charge.
Refinanced our mortgage and the new provider did not send the check to the old provider in a timely manner, which resulted in a negative item on my credit report. We got it fixed in a timely manner.
Refinanced our mortgage and the new provider did not send the check to the old provider in a timely manner, which resulted in a negative item on my credit report. We got it fixed in a timely manner.
Last edited by rkhusky on Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
The mistakes I have encountered do not fit into the poll categories. When I shifted my accounts to Vanguard I had assets left over at both what is now Morgan Stanly SmithBarney and UBS. Every quarter and annually I get the usual multiple page statement detailing the status of my investments:
At Morgan Stanley my account has held steady at $.02
And at UBS I still nurture a $.01 balance
Neither firm followed through on my repeated request to stop the statements (which may cost them more than $.02 to process) or, send me a check for the balance. I completed moving all my accounts to Vanguard by 2008 - that is a lot of paper work they are generating...
At Morgan Stanley my account has held steady at $.02
And at UBS I still nurture a $.01 balance
Neither firm followed through on my repeated request to stop the statements (which may cost them more than $.02 to process) or, send me a check for the balance. I completed moving all my accounts to Vanguard by 2008 - that is a lot of paper work they are generating...
Don't it always seem to go * That you don't know what you've got * Till it's gone
- plannerman
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Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
40 or so years ago, I had a new car loan from a local bank. Toward the end of the loan, they sent me a notice the the loan was satisfied. I checked my records, and I had only made 35 of the required 36 payments. I notified the bank manager who said something to the effect that they didn't make mistakes. I said OK. (It is my policy to always notify anyone who makes a financial mistake in my favor, but not not to argue about it if they don't agree.) I fully expected the bank to eventually find the error and ask for the last payment. I'm now guessing that may not happen.
plannerman
plannerman
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
My father and I have very similar names which has resulted in several instances of confusion. I started out at the same financial institution and suggested they use my first initial and full middle name for my account to avoid confusion. They, of course, said there wouldn't be any issue. When my dad moved he moved 'his' account and got considerably less than he expected in the transfer while I got a notice saying my account was closed. They did correct the mistake quickly - and changed the name on my account. I also made a slight profit as the market dipped a bit during the interim although I was annoyed that I had to deal with the paper work from capital gains tax on $10
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
I once settled an IRS audit and wrote them a check. Which they deposited and allocated to someone else (depite the fact that the right TIN was on the check).
I had the copy of the cancelled check, with their IRS stamp indicating the date and account #. It took about 6 months for them to fix it, during which time they sent me various threatening letters about seizing my assets.
Every time I got some threatening notice, I had to call the lawyer, who called the IRS. The response: "You can disregard those notices. We're still looking for that deposit."
We had provided them the date, account number and amount! Where were they looking?!?! In the couch cushions?
I had the copy of the cancelled check, with their IRS stamp indicating the date and account #. It took about 6 months for them to fix it, during which time they sent me various threatening letters about seizing my assets.
Every time I got some threatening notice, I had to call the lawyer, who called the IRS. The response: "You can disregard those notices. We're still looking for that deposit."
We had provided them the date, account number and amount! Where were they looking?!?! In the couch cushions?
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Re: the above, I bet their problem was they needed to reconcile their accounts and had to figure out whose account got your money.
"Don't trust everything you read on the Internet"- Abraham Lincoln
Re: POLL: Has a financial firm made a mistake with your mone
Never.
Chaz |
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