Comments on not the jet set: Why Does The Checking System Suck?

I work in law enforcement dealing with a lot of fi...

2008-09-01T18:24:00.000-04:00

I work in law enforcement dealing with a lot of financial crimes. Once a co-worker was presenting to a room or banking security big wigs, I worked in NYC at the time. They asked what was the one best thing to do to prevent many forms of bank fraud. My co-workers answer was enforce your own banking rules.

LOL! You ain't seen nothin'!My ex- and I banked fo...

2008-08-25T09:40:00.000-04:00

LOL! You ain't seen nothin'!

My ex- and I banked for years at what started out as a local bank and eventually was acquired by Wells Fargo. He was prominent in the community and so we had a personal banker, with whom I continued to deal after we divorced. I noticed that they were making mistakes, but because he had taken care of all our finances for 20 years, I assumed they probably were my errors, as I struggled to learn how to deal with money.

Then this outfit LOST a $30,000 bond!

The bank's financial advisor had suggested I put a chunk of money into a low-interest, almost worthless municipal bond. Having followed that dopey advice, I later learned from a real financial advisor that the money should go into a mutual fund. So I asked them to send me the bond.

Instead of Fed-Exing or having it delivered by messenger, as they said they would do, they dropped it into the U.S. mail, where it was promptly lost!

Then they told me it was MY responsibility to get the U.S.P.S. to track it down, and if it was gone for good...well, tough nougies!

I ended up having to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Banking Commission. Within minutes of that hitting the president's desk, the "personal banker" showed up at my front door with the bond in his hand.

Thanks for your comments. Few things are quite as...

2008-08-21T11:21:11.332-04:00

Thanks for your comments. Few things are quite as annoying as unsigned checks being honored.

The whole signature aspect seems like such a false sense of security. Same goes for credit/debit transactions. If no-one looks at it, then what is it worth? I suppose if there were a dispute, a bank or card issuer could go back and check the sigs... Other than that, it's nothing more than the front gate at an apartment community. It won't keep the baddies out, but just make you think it will keep the baddies out.

At the company I work for, we have dual signatures...

2008-08-21T10:40:00.000-04:00

At the company I work for, we have dual signatures on all our cheques, but occasionally one goes out without a second signature, and never once has the bank caught it, they just clear like any other cheque. Once we even got a check back with our statement that had NO signatures on it. I guess we should have complained to the bank. I really wonder why we have signing officers when apparently anyone could sign a cheque.

Sometimes someone is watching though. A couple years ago, a cheque from my landlord (damage deposit return) bounced because his wife wrote it in the wrong chequebook, and she didn't have signing authority on that account......