On a pretty much unrelated note but speaking of banks....

I'm a little short. And don't have much money. Last Friday, after being assured a check was in the mail, this time, I wrote a check for $14.28 to the local SuperAmerica store knowing full well there was a chance it might result in an overdraft if the check "on the way" really wasn't. It wasn't but this story is about something else.

This SuperAmerica processes checks through an electronic process where the check is returned to the customer and he or she signs an electronic approval slip or something. The clerk, rather than putting in $14.28 as the amount chose $20.00. The slip I signed, therefore was for $20.00 rather than the $14.28 I had written the check for.

Should I expect the bank to reconcile the amount of the check with the slip of paper approval request before debitting my account, should they have only charged me the amount of the check, or should I expect to suffer the consequences of the extra $5.72 withdrawl only being expectant that by bringing it to thier attention I am due a refund of the difference?

Why did you sign the receipt if the amount was wrong? The bank is going to assume you got cash back, so your error is gong to cost you the $5+ along with any overdraft fee which, around here is at least $30.

Check your receipts, friend--before you leave the store.

It's $35.00 here and the bank has already agreed to credit the difference. The store did too but I'm only asking for it once. The receipt wasn't actually a receipt but rather some agreement to allow the electronic transfer of funds rather than the paper transfer normally associated with a paper check.

Yes, I've run into those. You get your check back and the receipt, or agreement to the release of funds, always has the amount shown. Did you ever find out why the amounts were different?

Anyway, I'm glad you got it straightened out!

The amount shown must be hand entered, I assume, because the machinery used to make an image of the check and record the driver's licence information is not capable of reading the amount the check is written for. The "receipt" lists the check number and the amount entered (I am faulty for for not catching the "error" before signing the stub) but the "receipt" is for the check as written. IMHO.

I had caught the "error" before the debit was actually posted, other than posted in such a way as to create 3 overdrafts, one of which I could not allow them to keep but couldn't really complain about the other two.

After filing a dispute with the bank I went to the store because I thought it a little suspicious that $20.00 could be mistakenly entered when $14.28 was the actual number. I don't know for sure that a clerk could pocket the difference when the cash register totals 14.28 yet the "receipts" total 20.00 but that was the reason I brought it to his attention. That and some other reason's I had to be suspicious. I might ask him the next time I see him at the store or at least watch a little closer for my own benefit. It could be store policy to try these types of things as well as clerk policy to try them. It could be a mistake even, I guess, maybe. Since I only have $22.00 the difference was noticable. Otherwise, I could see this type of thing be easily missed by the average consumer.

I kind of wonder if the bank should have some obligation to debit the actual amount of the check I had written or if their obligation is only to accept the amount asked for. The amount on the "receipt" shouldn't override the amount the check was written for this reason, at least, unless it's clearly posted that all such transactons are rounded to the nearest $20.00 amount or something.

This week, I'm going to assume the only a mistake was that I was in the position to catch the difference. It's been that kind of week.