| Most embarrassing money moves |
| By Leslie
Hunt • Bankrate.com |
|
If you've ever left your card in the ATM or overpaid
a drive-through attendant without realizing it until later, you
know exactly how it feels to make an embarrassing financial blunder.
I speak from experience. Just two
months ago, I used my bank's online bill pay for the first time
to make a payment to my electric company. The payment cleared my
bank on time and everything seemed just grand -- until I got a final
notice in the mail stating that if I didn't pay my bill, they'd
shut my power off. Confused, and wondering where my money was, I
called my bank to find out what had happened with my e-bill. The
customer service representative investigated for a few minutes and
read the e-bill information to me over the phone, including the
information I had entered for the payee's name and address and the
amount due.
And then it occurred to me: She had just read my address.
The bank had sent a check from me to me -- all because I had entered
in my own address instead of the power company's. I admitted the
error to the woman, who kindly corrected the error, stopped the
check payment and assured me that it had happened before. It didn't
do much for my ego.
A caution, dear readers who may be new to online bill
pay: Don't confuse the payee's address with your own. In this case,
you are not the payee.
After a weeklong reader survey asking for the best
financial blunders, I discovered I'm not alone in goof-ups. Here
are the best of the best.
Same sum, different lender
"I had a situation where I wrote out two checks for the same
amount and sent one to Ford for a car payment and the other to a
local bank for an equity loan payment. Unfortunately, I switched
the checks when I put them in the envelopes. The bank was kind enough
to call me, so I mailed them another check. I was concerned about
being late on the car payment, so I paid over the phone. In the
end, Ford cashed the bank's check."
It's all in the mail
"I needed to run errands one day. I had the bills I had to
mail and my ATM deposit envelope all together. I was rushing and
discovered once I arrived at the ATM, that I had "mailed"
my deposit with the bills. I had to go back to the post office (luckily
that's where I mailed them and they were still open) and convince
the guy behind the counter to open up the mailbox for me so I could
get it out. He did, and I had to show him my ID and open the deposit
up to prove it was mine."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"One day I went to the mailbox, and there was
an envelope with my checkbook in it. I had gone to the post office
a couple of days earlier and managed to leave it there. I didn't
even realize it was missing!
"Twice my local Safeway has called me to tell
me I left my checkbook there. I don't carry a checkbook any more
-- I just use my debit card."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"I mailed the balance of my checkbook to pay
a bill instead of the amount due. Several years later, I repeated
this mistake and sent the balance of my checkbook to the same company
again. Needless to say the other checks I wrote bounced."
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