Wrong amount on cheque!

jjdenton

Hopefully someone can help me here...

I wrote a cheque out on Saturday afternoon to be paid into an account at a different bank in my stepfather's name, but I've just looked at the receipt and noticed that the teller at his bank who processed it has inputted the wrong amount on the receipt - instead of £310, she's inputted £2310!!!

The cheque hasn't yet cleared out of my account, so I contacted my bank to inform them of the magnitude of the mistake and was told that if I wanted to stop the cheque, I'd be charged £12.50 for the privilege - I'm absolutely livid about this and have absolutely no intention of paying any of my money to rectify someone else's mistake, but at the same time I want this to be sorted out as soon as possible - can anyone give me any advice as to what to do?

heather_helo

if the cheque was written for 310, there shouldn't be a problem as when the bank reconciles its ledgers and the cheque clears it should just show as a credit adjustment on the bank statement of the account paid in to, if the cheque is for a different amount (2310) you need to cancel the cheque and complain in branch and kick up a right stink its the banks error not yours

but defo bad customer service though, recommend a complaint in branch.

JuicyJesus

If the cheque debits at £2310, you say to your bank "look, this cheque has gone through at the wrong amount". They should be able to get a copy of said cheque which will clearly say the correct amount, fix the issue, and once that's done I would expect any fees or interest incurred to be reversed.

The chances of this occurring however are slim. Chances are the cheque will be debited as £310 and you'll be alright.

thenudeone

During processing, all cheques have a new set of figures (for the value of the cheque) printed in the space on the bottom row in magnetic and machine-readable print, to the right of the account number, as shown in this example: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236566/Gordon-Browns-rent-cheque-bounced-university.html

If it was entered as £2310 at the receiving bank it could be processed all the way through the system as that value and it would depend upon a manual check picking up the error at the payer's bank.

If it's processed in error, it would undoubtedly be corrected eventually but it could take some time.

jjdenton

Thanks for your help everyone... I'd best just clarify that the cheque was written for £310, but the error is on the paying-in receipt, which shows the amount as being £2310.

My stepfather will be going into his bank tomorrow to try and make sure my account is debited by the correct amount - I'm just so glad I have sufficient funds in there at the moment and even if the wrong amount is processed it won't cause me to go overdrawn, but will leave me practically skint until it's sorted out. The fact that it's happened in the first place has been a massive annoyance and worry for me - after all, £2000 isn't exactly what you'd call small change... and believe me, I definitely WILL be firing off at least one letter of complaint!!!

I just don't know who I'm more angry with... the teller at Halifax for making the initial mistake, the telephone banking assistant at Barclays whom I could barely understand for trying to charge me to correct the teller's error, or myself for not noticing it before I left the Halifax... :mad::mad::mad:

Mikeyorks

jjdenton wrote: »

I'm just so glad I have sufficient funds in there at the moment and even if the wrong amount is processed it won't cause me to go overdrawn,

If it does go through in the higher amount - go into Halifax and insist they process an adjustment back through the Clearing system. The Branch won't know what your talking about so insist they talk to their clearing agents to get it done. One of the first things they do is image the cheque .... so they just pull up the image. Often that is done before the MICR value is encoded (bottom right - and as above post) .... but it's academic as your account debit will show the error.

These internal adjustments happen dozens of times a day - if your cheque is processed incorrectly, just make sure it's one of them!

silentkiller

I had a similar issue with Barclays - I had 3 cheques to pay into my account made out for like £130 but when the woman totaled them to put into my account she said it was £150 or something and even put £150 on the slip but I did receive a letter a few weeks later to say that they had made a mistake.
Sooo if the cheque is made out for £300 then I imagine unless the bank is really stupid then that is how much will be paid.

Googleplex

I had a similar problem at Nationwide a few weeks ago. I had a cheque for £4.79 and paid it in through on of their automated deposit machines. The machine read the amount as £479.00. I did notice this and input the amount manually, but I was quite concerned that the cheque would debit at the wrong amount. Thankfully, it went through OK, but it did take a day longer than usual to debit my account; so I think that there must have been some sort of manual check at the clearing centre.

Also, I would imagine that at the end of the day, the cashier at the bank has to balance the cash and cheques in their till; so hopefully the error would have been spotted (and hopefully corrected) there and then.

Best of luck!

jjdenton

Update: I've just had the first opportunity to check my balance, and have discovered that the whole incorrect amount of 2310 has been taken from my account. My stepfather has been into the Halifax and notified them of the error (this was a few days ago), but it would seem that nothing's been done about it. The result is that I now find myself with barely enough money in my account to cover my standard monthly expenses - with three huge bills due to come out in the next few weeks. I'm now just about ready to explode and feel two very strong letters of complaint coming on...

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

JuicyJesus

jjdenton wrote: »

Update: I've just had the first opportunity to check my balance, and have discovered that the whole incorrect amount of 2310 has been taken from my account. My stepfather has been into the Halifax and notified them of the error (this was a few days ago), but it would seem that nothing's been done about it. The result is that I now find myself with barely enough money in my account to cover my standard monthly expenses - with three huge bills due to come out in the next few weeks. I'm now just about ready to explode and feel two very strong letters of complaint coming on...

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Or just go into your bank and explain the error. They are at fault for debiting you with the incorrect amount, and responsible for putting you back in the position you would have been in had they not !!!!!!ed up.

Also, stop using cheques because things like this happen when you use cheques.

jjdenton

I think from now on I'm going to be cash/debit cards only... I can't be doing with going through this again... I don't think my blood pressure can stand it!
:mad::mad::mad: