There was an article in the local rag about a theft from the local branch of the Charter One bank. Apparently there was a bag of paperwork and check-deposits waiting for a courier to pick them up. That bag was stolen and absconded with.
According to the article:
A letter from the bank to customers who made deposits that day at the Wall Street office said the bag contained "branch work for the day" and that the depositors must "obtain replacement items for any check you deposited on January 14, 2005."
Excuse me? So if the bank loses the paperwork it was given, it's up to the banking customer to go track down the people who gave them the checks and get new ones if they want to actually see the money?
Charter One's letter, dated Jan. 20 and signed "Corporate Security," states the affected depositors received "provisional credit for all deposits made that day" but that replacement checks must be submitted."The makers of the checks should be contacted and advised that a 'stop payment' should be placed on the original check as a result of the theft," the letter states. "They should then issue a new check, less any 'stop payment' fees the maker incurs."
So these check-writers -- customers of other banks now also have to pay a stop-payment fee to their bank to account for Charter One's screw-up in security? (Yes, they can deduct it from the amount of the replacement check, but still!) What if you're a retail outlet and have to chase down the several hundred customers who wrote you checks that day? Who compensates those people for their time?
This problem is entirely one of Charter One's making (if you can get to a bag containing all the day's checks simply by throwing a brick through a piece of glass then that's seriously screwed up security). Instead, though, Charter One isn't going to be actually held accountable for any of it. If you can't get a replacement check, you're not going to get to keep the money you rightfully deposited. Charter One essentially pushes the entire cost of the problem on their customer and (even worse) on their customers' customers.
If anyone who has Charter One, who is affected by this, remains a customer afterward, they need to have their head examined.
Isn't a check which is signed on the back the same thing as cash? Would Charter One have asked their depositors the same thing if a bag of cash was stolen?
Mental Note, stay the f*ck away from Charter One.
Banks seem to lack the ability to think about problems. Oh, no, something happened, quick, BLAME EVERYONE ELSE. Planning for emergencies is part of my job; why isn't someone at the bank tasked with working all this stuff out in advance?
Would it be wrong to empty the account with the provisional credit, deposit in another bank, and tell Charter One to get their own d@hm replacement check?
Why don't they use paperless money transfers?
Then these things can't happen.
After all, Germany has it for 50 years now.
I do deposits for my church, sometimes 15-20 checks at a time.
some for less than the canceled check fee (OMG wouldn't that be fun to deal with).
I don't record who gave cash, who gave checks.
This minister announces from the pulpit:
"if you gave us a check last Sunday, could you cancel the check, write a new one, deducting the cost of cancelling the check."
then banks charge different amounts, so the deposit won't match.
"oh, yeah write in the memo line how much the fee was"
and then not all the check writers are there the first week.
"if you wrote a check 2 weeks ago, and haven't written a new check, or forgot to write in the amount of the fee... let us know"
by the third or fourth week, we will havesome of the old people writing a second replacement check, or writing a check when they paid cash the first time. Meanwhile the check they canceled that they thought was to the church, but was to, say the doctor, will bounce.
I would love to say how this plays out.
Ralf-
The Germans are always ahead of us when it comes to technologhy or doing things correctly. I mean they use the metric system, the 24 hour clock, have superior roads, cars, electroninc equipment. Their stuff is 5 years ahead of us.
Question regarding the cheques at church: What is the advantage over giving "real" money instead (except for the advantage "I have to keep less slips of paper")?
Ralf,
A couple things... 1... americans are carrying cash around less and less these days. Debit cards are everywhere. Second, and perhaps more importantly, americans take a tax-deduction on any charitable contributions they make, including payments to churches. There's a limit on "cash" transactions, but on donations with receipts or proof, a la cancelled checks, that goes away.
Well everyone, charter one is not an american owned bank, it is owned by RBS or royal bank of scotland and they can give a shit about us along with the rest of europe. So here's the deal, they do not hire enough employees to cover their shifts. they treat their employees like garbage. The motivate the top managers with greed and scare tactics and why?? They are owned by foreigners!!! get it, when ever a foreign owned company is in the U.S. they treat their employees like trash, maby not right away but eventually they do because they don't like what we do or what we stand for. Shit, they create an atmosphere that is anti family, you can't even take vacation time or sick time without getting threatened by upper management and with that said, does the picture look a little clearer, hmm, and Dubya is letting it all happen, we need to get his ass out of office along with all the other corp crooked greedy assholes..
yep charter one, they fired my wife because she had to get my son from a relative due to an emergency. Well my friends I hope the media picks up on this blog because charter one's ceo and corporate nazis your asses have a limited time in America, you need to go back to scotland with fred the shread you bastards!!! get out of my country you anti American nazis and take dubya with you!!!!!