Man, I hope he pays his balance off every month, can you imagine the interest payment on that sucker?

If Visa knows about this issue, why can't they just automatically drop the overdraft fees at this point?

I hope he tipped his waiter/waitress accordingly.

@JustinSane07:

So they can hold on to the money for 4-6 weeks, collect interest on it, then pay you back the $20. Its part of their new drive to promote synergy between departments.

Remember, we are dealing with banks that control the credit card...

horay for middle men!

@JustinSane07: Visa just tells them how much the payment was for. Banks charge the overdraft fees when the payment exceeds your balance.

So you have to ask the bank to credit your fee, after visa reverses the charge.

@JustinSane07: And, why did it take him all day to clear the charge? This is more upsetting to me than receiving the charge in the first place.

We need a Y2K style conspiracy theory on how the integer "23,148,855,308,184,500" translates into some sort of cosmic prediction for the end of the world, like the large holy numbers of the Bhagavad Gita, and how increasing occurrences of this number are a sign of impending Apocalypse.

If these large erroneous charges do end up causing the end of days, you heard it here first!

-alternate snarky comment-

Credit card companies have to make ends meet some how! We just need one consumer to not notice and pay their bills, and the entire industry (ok, maybe just Visa) will be sitting pretty again.

For all whe know, this kind of techinal error could have been happening all this time behind the scenes, eatting up millions of dollars, leading to the banks needing to be bailed out.

Just an idea.

These stories had me concerned enough to check my online statement. Thankfully, no 23 Quadrillion charges.

Visa has a system programmed to handle *quadrillions*? What sort of inflation are they expecting?

So, here we have three cases where customers wasted time telling Visa about the glitch. What the hell kind of business doesn't watch receivable balances daily where they can would know right away there is a problem? Amazing Fire the CFO and CEO both

23 Quadrillion is only 381 times as much as the world GDP of 60.6 trillion. It seems like the bank would be able to charge more than a $20 overdraft fee.

I wonder if Visa get the memo about the new cover pages for the TPS reports. This could have ALL been prevented. I'll get them another memo.

Mundane!? You call the decimal place a MUNDANE DETAIL!?

Wow, that would be a lot of frequent flier miles if you have that kind of card. Enough miles to continuously fly around the world. Too bad you'd have to eat airline food.

I'd be torn if I saw this on my Visa statement. On one hand, it would mean that my credit rating is THROUGH THE ROOF, and that I have more spending power than the United States; but on the other, I could never pay off this meal, no matter how good it was.

@ColoradoShark: And since pretty much all airlines make you pay for food and are now cashless (for our "convenience") you'd be stuck using your Visa to pay $23,148,855,308,184,500 for a disgusting, small cold cut sandwich and stale chips.

Isn't the point, from a consumer POV, that the pre-paid cards are for staying within your limits? So why does VISA allow you to over debit your pre-paid amount?

T-Mobile doesn't charge me an overage fee when I go over my pre-paid minutes, my call just ends because I'm not able to over extend. I thought the pre-paid credit cards worked the same way?

Plus, what happens to the amount the massive over draft was supposed to be? Does this guy just get a free dinner after the reverse goes through?

@brianary:

The kind that earns them 20 bucks a hit.

@AlteredBeast:

Yes... my firm routinely miscalculates millions of dollars.

A stupid idea...

@ColoradoShark: Most airports have decent food, so you could schedule your connecting flights so that you could eat on the ground--hell, you might even plan to spend a few minutes outside during the year

I am so going to make a real purchase for that exact amount and then get them to wipe it away because it was their programming error.

@ludwigk: I just figured it out.

23 + 148 + 855 + 308 + 184 + 500 = 2018

Isn't that the year the ancient VISA calendar runs out? I think this is the first sign

VISA FAIL: economic stimulus <-- you are doing it wrong

I've figured it out. This must have to do with the "purchase is on us" program. There are certain banks that are randomly selecting members' visa check card purchases to cover for free. It's like a lottery. Well everyone knows that you must maintain the balance of nature, so to balance out the goodness to cover these purchases, they must also randomly charge customer gazillions of dollars. And the world is saved again.

@Gramin: Well, Visa has done this several times, and they still haven't gotten their overdraft fees fix in relation to it, nor gotten the word out to get rid of the overdraft fee without an overly long phone call.

So I dont find it so hard to believe that one of these banks that has had so many problems, could have a computing error totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars that went unnoticed.

Yes, it is stupid...but so is what happened. So stupid is possible.

@LiquidGravity: Beer for everyone! No, really, everyone!

It would seem that charging an incorrect amount intentionally is fraud.

If I am a store clerk and intentionally ring up your $15.59 purchase for $115.59, it is a crime.

Their admission that they have knowledge of this problem to me is an admission of guilt.

I like how the blog software automatically splits the "$23,148,855,308,184,500" into separate tags of

$23 148 855 308 184 and 500

@AlteredBeast:

Who cares about a million dollars? These banks are multi-billion dollar corporations. The notion that a computer error caused their downfall is absurd.

It would also be interesting for one of these victims to NOT spend hours of their time on the phone and let the card go to collections. LOTS of laws pertaining to collecting an invalid debt - fun times!

@Gramin: I care about a million dollars.

@Gramin: I'm not saying ONE error, but with errors like this slipping through, you have to wonder how close a eye Visa (and other companies) are keeping on interal financial calculations...and that several unchecked errors can have a huge impact, and this kind of unattention to detail is what contributed to the downfall.

@tptcat:

Touche'!

No, no...this was ACTUALLY billed to the government after they tried to pay off some of the deficit during the promotional period on the card...

@Brent Woodle: Me, too. I have 2 Visa debit cards and a credit card. I haven't bought anything in a few days, but you can never be too careful.

No fifteen-digit charges, thankfully.

@SkokieGuy:

Wow! Really? You're a lawyer? No? Just a dumbass, right?

They acknowledged that it was a computer error and they were aware of the issue and fixed it. Doesn't seem like they were intentionally charging quadrillions to unsuspecting consumers.

You are further evidence our education system is in dire need of repair.

@SkokieGuy:

The lawyer has spoken again. Sorry, I mean dumbass.

I'm sure the banks would send this to collections. They would never notice that the amount charged is obscenely large.

Do us all a favor and save your legal advice/wisdom/stupidity for some other blog... or rather, just take it to the grave with you.

Con Seannery
2:02 PM

"No, no...this was ACTUALLY billed to the government after they tried to pay off some of the deficit during the promotional period on the card... "

@Con Seannery: LOLOL

How do you overdraft a pre-paid account?

@AlteredBeast:

There are several internal reporting systems that double-check the other systems. Then there's internal auditors... and external auditors.

This error didn't slip through. They caught it. Yes, several customers received this faulty charge, but it was caught. And fixed. Money just doesn't appear or disappear at these large corporations. They have a tight handle on their cash.

@ludwigk: Got it:

Pattern: Take 5 digits, skip one, take 5 digits, take 5 digits, skip one, etc.

Add each group of 5 internally and you get 18, but there are 3 groups of 5 so you must divide each by 3.

6 6 6

Take the remaining digits and you have 80. If you divide 80 by 6, add 2 for the number of digits, and then multiply by 80, you get:

1226 . 6 6 6 666 666 666

This is the number of days which are left until the beginning of The End which will be exactly one month (31 days) later on December 21, 2012, as predicted by the Mayans.

@floraposte: And plasma TVs. And OREOS!!

If one does a chargeback, does that mean they get $23 quadrillion dollars ?

I'm so doing this.

@Optimus: NUMBERS can be made to say anything. The true test is whether the method is fully scientific, and not some random string of requirements that someone pulled out of their rear end.

Am I the only one disturbed about VISA publicly tying the glitch to prepaid accounts only? VISA basically outed the victims as a prepaid account holders, which readers everywhere will associate with deadbeats. I think it's an outrageous privacy violation, just as if VISA had said the problem only happened with people whose credit limit was $XXX.XX. What a way to shut up anyone else who may be having trouble getting the error corrected. Victims now know that if they go public with their story, they'll be labeled and discredited (pun intended) as prepaid account holders.

@Hoss: It is possible that if the banks do it to enough people that a $20 charge will squeak by the person not willing to talk to a script reading drone for 1/2 hour and then navigate another hours worth of people "who can't solve the problem" plus a couple of possible disconnects...

@pb5000: There is probably some snail mail address to which you have to send a paper letter to decline overages.

@Brent Woodle: Fortunately, I keep about 75 quadrillion dollars in my primary checking account for just this reason so I can avoid $15 overdraft fees.