Banking Bloopers

"Don't always bank on it!!!"

We all make mistakes, don't we? Banks are human too...well, almost!

One day Charley went into his bank in Jersey City, USA, to check his account. He was astonished to be told he had $100,000. “Uh, erm, I don’t think this is right,” he said. “Our computers don’t make mistakes,” the bank official replied snottily. “Go home. You’re wrong and we’re right”.

Charley followed the advice and over the next two days withdrew the lot. By the time the bank realised its mistake, he’d long gone. For a year he lived it up, until a policeman fed his driving licence number into a computer during a traffic check. Charley was arrested.

But Charley had been lucky at the casinos in Las Vegas, and was able to repay the bank around $80,000.

Andy Sennitt, from Holland, recalls how his bank temporarily ‘lost’ a large sum of his money. “I imagined someone at the bank enjoying a Caribbean cruise, and saying to his girlfriend ‘Nice of old Sennitt to lend us the money. Pity he doesn’t know’”.

An American bank went bust when a top official left his home PC linked to the bank’s mainframe computer one weekend. While Dad and Mum were out to dinner, their three-year old daughter convinced the babysitter that she was allowed to play on the PC and, by pure chance, managed to transfer the bank’s entire assets to unknown destinations. Now, that was some mistake!!!

By Phil Bryant
Phil is a recognised writer on financial matters, and is media consultant to banks and building societies.

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