Cash a check, go to jail?
Matthew Shinnick had a revealing few months dealings with BofA. Mr. Shinnick accepted a rather large check selling a pair of bikes via a Craigslist transaction. Suspicious of details of the transaction, he takes a stroll down to his local BofA to check whether the account the check was drawn on was valid and had enough in it to cover the transaction. Reassured by the teller on both counts, Matthew cashes the check. Almost immediately followed by his arrest. You see, the check Matthew had was phony, and there was a notation in BofA‘s system to be on the lookout for fake checks. Several months and almost $14,000 in legal bills later, his name was finally cleared. Now he’d like a little restitution from the bank for their error, and the chaos they introduced into his life that could have easily been avoided had they simply given him the information he requested before he cashed the check. But, of course, the bank is having none of it.
One interesting side effect of this story is talk radio host Clark Howard is running with the story. First off, he’s trying to get BofA to pay Matthew’s legal bills. But apparently avoiding the boatlad of bad press that getting regularly trashed on a national radio show isn’t worth $14,000 to BofA.
Much more fun is Clark’s campaign to get people to close their BofA accounts and let him know – right now, his ‘BofA Money Loss Meter‘ is sitting at a little over $30 million. So, their pigheadedness in dealing with what they themselves call a bank error is going to end up costing them substantially more than $14,000 – just 1% of those lost $30 million in deposits (which I’d say would be a fairly poor return) is $300,000. Not to mention losing access to whatever funds all those lost customers would have allowed to pass through their hands over the years, and you’re starting to look at real numbers.
Of course, with a company that had net income of almost $5.5 billion, what’s a few hundred thousand lost dollars. This is precisely why I bank locally. My account – and any potential positive or negative impressions about it that I might share with my acquaintances – actually matters to them. If not for entirely altruistic reasons then at least for reasons of, well, staying in business.
A Pair of Lessons Michael has learned:
- Be cautious about any but the most plain vanilla transactions on Craigslist when you are new to it!
- Large national banks like BofA just do not care about you. I say you reciprocate the love and close up those accounts, and reward those who deserve your business!
[tags]Bank of America,Craigslist,phony check, Clark Howard[/tags]
