My brother and I had the opportunity to visit Boise this summer. I always take a little bit of cash when I travel but I ran out during our trip. I did what I thought was best and Googled “credit union near me.” I found a credit union, so I drove to the credit union and used the ATM in their drive thru. I entered my debit card, my pin, and the amount, $100. Everything was going fine, until the ATM did not give me the cash. Thankfully I got my debit card back, but the ATM now had an out of order message on the screen. I went to the other ATM and successfully withdrew $80 from that ATM.
Concerned that the $100 might be withdrawn from my checking account, I watched it carefully. Sure enough both the $100 and the $80 had been withdrawn. I contacted my credit union and told them what happened. Likely story, right? Who would even believe this? The credit union took my dispute seriously. My credit union issued a temporary credit to my checking account of $100 while the dispute was being researched. Two months later, I received a letter from my credit union saying, the “non-BECU ATM has completed the research and found an error.” It reminded me of the game of Monopoly. You know the yellow Community Chest card that reads: Bank Error in your favor! Collect $200. It was almost like winning the lottery.
I want you to protect your money too! Here are three steps to ensure your money is safe:
1. Save receipts until transactions have cleared the account.
2. Review transactions that clear your bank accounts regularly. Research and address anything that you can’t validate.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask questions until you understand what transactions represent in your accounts.
留言