Same thing happened with one of my kids savings accounts years ago--they never caught it! I say---f&*K em. Think they wouldn't (and haven't) "do you if they had a chance?

im sorry but

im not exactly sure why you wouldnt go back in the first place. the bank is going to find out eventually why try and steal from the bank. It will get you nowhere but trouble.

usually the bank teller is responsible for the cash in their drawer at the end of the day. if it doesnt balance out, they are responsible for paying the difference out of their paycheck. at least this is what my friend told me, who worked at M&T for a few years as a teller. He would frequently owe them small chunks of change. so if you dont go back to the bank, you have screwed over the poorly paid teller out of $500, maybe. dont know if this practice goes on anymore....

If I am not mistaken, the teller can get fired for making a mistake such as that. So in a recession like this, Im sure s/he would like to stay employed. This seems like a personal moral question, obviously there will be mixed opinions on how to handle the matter.

@dandubois: the same banks who can't "find out" that the mortgages they make are worthless and will never be collected on? Their entire business process is centered around the movement of largely imaginary digital numbers. If its in their computer records, to them it is real. If he made it long enough to send this question to consumerist, he is likely in the clear

Seriously? Consumerist is having a poll about whether someone should commit larceny? n This a really tough one.

It doesn't matter if it's a bank, or a jerk, or your mean 4th grade teacher who spanked you.

It doesn't matter that the The Game of Life has a Bank Error in your Favor Card.

It doesn't matter if you're poor and need the money.

Once they credit your account, the actual cash in hand doesn't belong to you. This is like a kindergarten lesson. Turn the money over of let them know they made a mistake. And seriously consumerist, this need not be some kind of conundrum in need of a majority vote.

Moral and legal arguments aside for a moment...if you just move along with the extra balance in your account, then spend some of it, that may be the time they find and correct their error, leaving you overdrawn and facing fees which, according to some posts on Consumerist, could cost YOU as much as $500.

Pretty easy to catch. At the end of the day they count and match up the cash on hand versus what the receipts show. There is a $500 discrepancy. So, how many depositors during the day claimed to have deposited exactly $500 in cash? Not many I presume.
If they want want to prove it, they can just watch the video and look at what point you handed over the cash (or didn't). Try to fight them and they can pull back the money from the county so that then your property taxes are not paid and you will have even more penalties (if you are paying now, obviously you are already late and probably under the threat of foreclosure from your lending institution). WAMU may even close your account. They can do that even for no reasonfor no reason. WAMU may have been kinder, but now that they are controlled by Chase, there is no kindness left.

There will probably be all sorts of fees involved for fessing up.

yea, personally I would just go back and explain the situation and hand them the money. He obviously planned to have it in his account. I agree with every bit of money helps and who couldn't use an extra $500? He may be in the clear but I probably wouldn't have waited this long once I realized to avoid any repercussions.@Shane Elliott:

"I have a bank account credited an extra 500 dollars and I don't know what to do."

Let me put this into the Truthanslator™ [beep bop boop boop boop bing!]

Like, would you give me permission to keep this money because I know it's wrong and maybe someone else will be penalized but maybe if a website says so I can like keep it maybe?

@Shane Elliott: Difference being here that the drawer is checked every night. In that drawer there are clues like "ok, who had an even 500 in cash on their deposit slip" That can so easily be combined with video surveillance to prove you didn't give the money. There may already be a snail mail letter on it's way to his house informing him of the correction to his account ( that's how my bank handles it if I put in the wrong amount on an atm deposit at least.)

If you went to the bank to withdraw a thousand dollars and they only gave you $800 and you didn't notice until two hours later, of course you would go back and let them know that they did not give you all of your money. It is, after all, your money. But if they asked if they could keep the two hundred dollars for their investments because times are tough and every penny counts, how would you feel?

You know the right answer to this, so please go tell them that you both screwed up and deposit your $500 properly. When that teller's drawer is short, they'll track you down eventually.

@GiselleBeardchen: I bet we all appreciate the values you installed in your kids.

@twophrasebark: Thank you, that's exactly what I was thinking. Even if Consumerist had said keep it, you think that would have put him in less trouble when the bank at a later point can prove not only that he had the money and knew it, but advertised it on a rather large internet blog?

If you wanted to keep the money then you probably shouldn't have told anyone or gotten it posted on consumerist. Genius award goes to OP.

Oh and 500 bucks? Someone probably lost their job.
How's that 500 sit in your possession with that on your conscience?

[icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com]

@K-Bo: Haha. I can only Imagine the conversation.

Sir Why did you keep the money?

Consumerist said I could, thats why!

@snazz: Not quite true - I work at a bank and the teller would not have to pay the money back (I'm not certain, but I don't think that sort of practice is legal), but they'd certainly lose their job. One of my co-workers misplaced $1K once and the customer who got the extra back in a change order returned the cash. The branch manager tried to give the customer a $50 credit in his account as a reward but the customer refused it.

@Greeper: There was no poll! Consumerist was pretty straight about telling to go back and hand in the money.

@twritersf: Yea, If I had tried to pull that shit and keep the money my mom would have smacked me in the head for even thinking such a thing.

@twophrasebark: You are correct. He was asking permission to keep an extra $500 not his. I admit I would be tempted. I also know I would go back and give them the money.

If they hassled me and said it couldn't be and the mistake was mine, then I'd keep the money.

Considering you sent Consumerist the story and it's been posted for the world to see I think they'll certainly figure out the 500$ shortage now. Had you been silent it's very possible that in the end the entire thing would have been blamed on the teller.

Clearly you feel guilty about this so as the blog suggests you should return to the Bank, talk to the manager and hopefully save someones job.

@dandubois: Yeah, sometimes I think people give consumerist more credit than they should. I mean they are pretty nice and smart and cool and all that, but when you try to get free legal advice from a blog, best case scenario you get what you pay for. Worst case you end up in a legal situation so weird and twisted that they write a made for tv movie about you.

Oh, and for the record, does anyone else blame Monopoly in this? "Bank Error in Your Favor 50$" and in that game we're supposed to be happy and get to keep the money!

It kinda teaches the wrong thing to kids don't it.

How old is this question? The banks aren't branded WaMu in LA any longer, all the signage is now Chase.

But besides that - why is this a question? Take the money back. Not because they'll find out or because of the teller who will be left holding the bag but because that's what you signed up for - banking. They hold your money in trust. Don't mess with that sort of thing.

@ColoradoShark: There was no intent to take the money - its purely a civil/moral issue now - not criminal

@GiselleBeardchen: Getting kids to lie, cheat, and steal early on in life can't possibly have adverse side effects down the line.

Now that you have foolishly made it public that you know WaMu gave you the credit without giving them the money, you have no plausible deniability to argue otherwise, so really your only recourse is to fess up to the mistake.

Have you never played Monopoly? Bank error in your favor, collect $500. Its not as though the bank won't be taking this all back over your lifetime with nonsense fees and usurious interest rates.

Keep the money, but make sure you factor in that $500 if you are writing checks. If and when they catch their mistake, you don't to bounce checks when they deduct the $500 from your account.

As Monopoly says: "Bank error in your favor, collect $500."

@twophrasebark: op obviously didn't get the answer s/he wanted here; will try Dear Abby next.

@Greeper: To be fair, I think it's Monopoly that has the "Bank Error In Your Favor" card. ;)

I agree, though. I'm surprised anybody is even suggesting that he keep the cash. He should go to the bank ASAP and hand over the money.

@Shane Elliott: The beautiful truth:

The consumer has 7 business days to discover and report any banking error to their benefit and collect the difference.

If the error is in the bank's error, they have your entire lifespan to catch the mistake and take the money back from you.

@arthurborko: LOL! Best comment on the subject!

@Greeper:

Err, did you actually read the post? There's no poll, nor even any question as to whether the guy should give the money back. Carey tells the guy straight out to go back to the branch, speak to a manager and return the money. Not quite sure how you missed that part before commenting.

Unfortunately, the $500 may feel great in your pocket, but it won't feel that great knowing that a teller looses their job. Even if you don't like banks (i don't either!), you should consider the affect your choice has on another human being. I manage a credit union and have seen my tellers make a mistake like this. They have figured out the customer they made the mistake with and given a call to see if they can have them come in and hand over the money. Some people have fessed up and come in and apologized "for not noticing". Some people have flat out said, that didn't happen! (even though we can see the entire transaction take place on camera) Bottom line is, watching someone cry because they know they are going to loose their job based on someones CHOICE not to be honest sucks. I hope you will simply think about the person that your choice will effect, and any family members they may also be supporting. Just a thought.

Just as a practical matter, not a moral one, how exactly would they determine that you didn't hand over the cash? They credited your account based on a cash deposit, and that money goes in the drawer, and at that point your money is indistinguishable from anyone else's money. There is no paper trail, just the credit to your account. They say you gave them the money, how can tell that you didn't. When they try to zero out their books at the end of the day, they will come up short, but how are they going to know they are short based on your transaction (unless they come up exactly $500 short)? Perhaps they can go to the security cameras and look at each deposit and see if the teller didn't count out the $500 before typing in the deposit.

Daniel's parents should be ashamed of themselves for bringing an ignorantly amoral person into this world.

@supercereal: You have a point. It's better to make them give the money back, so that next time they will know to keep their mouths shut.

@GiselleBeardchen: Think they wouldn't (and haven't) do you if they had a chance?

Ethics doesn't work that way (and neither does civilization).

@Jason Zolghadr: It's usually 60 days from your statement date to report errors.

Wow, this doesn't even belong here! Shame Consumerist. Shame OP.

I recently disputed a transaction on my USAA Master card, USAA issued a credit. Three days later, The refund from the original company came thru (Weeks beyond when they said they would refund). I called USAA and asked them to take back their credit. It was only $30, but it was still their money.

@TancredoHelmer: If the drawr is $500 short, and there was only one $500 deposit that day, it makes it easy to track.

The teller will probably lose the job no matter what , they did not count all the cash and checks,they are as good as fired as sad as is

@Munchtime: Yeah, but if you didn't notice? Would the bank go to the trouble of tracking you down to return the money?

@TancredoHelmer: If you're wondering what'll happen if the drawer is more like $505.93 short due to other mistakes throughout the day, or even $1000 short due to another mistake just like it, they'll probably go over which transactions were large enough to account for something like that, and review those on the security camera footage. They'll see that Daniel left with the cash.

@huse0064: I hope not, because, either way, the teller erred.

The reverse happened to me once. I was depositing a paycheck with cash back at a drive through. The teller forgot to give me the cash. So I went in immediately and reported the problem. The manager completely shut down the teller operations for the drive through for 10 minutes and counted all the drawers. She found they were in excess exactly the amount I claimed was not presented, and was listed on my receipt. So I got the cash. I have no idea what happened to the teller involved.