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I've used BOA's ATMs to make cash deposits on numerous occasions before, and each time things have gone well.
Not this morning. After counting my money and rejecting a few of the bills that were too worn to identify, the ATM swallowed my money and returned my card without a receipt or record of the deposit.
I performed a balance inquiry and the deposit was not credited.
I then called BOA to file a claim, and I was told that tomorrow I would receive a temporary credit to my account pending an investigation, which basically means they will balance the ATM and verify that my claim equals the amount they are over.
Has anyone ever been in this situation? Was it resolved favorably? I generally trust that their process will work, but I'm a little worried that some third party may be used to balance the ATM or that some unscrupulous bank employee might pocket the overage. Is there anyway to prove that I actually made this cash deposit?
Should I be concerned that that money might be gone?
Just start making your cash deposits inside the bank when the bank is open. It'll save you from things like this.
I used to wait tables, and I'd deposit my tips into the ATM every night. One night, my deposit envelope fell into a crack between the wall and the ATM, and I wasn't able to get it out. It created a few days long ordeal, but they found my money and credited it.
I think (and hope) your problem will be resolved rather quickly.
I believe they use dual controls, that is, two people open and count the cash deposited. It would take the two to collude for them to pocket the cash. There may also be surveillance of the area where counting takes place.
BOA has been consolidating reconciling for a few years now. Money is taken to a central reconciling area within a greater metropolitan area and counted under video surveillance and with strict protocols. The plus side is that it is much more secure. The negative is that it can take a couple of days.
It didn't used to be this way. I used to have to make night drops of thousands of dollars. One smaller bank had issues. After getting burned a few times, I took to recording how many bills of each denomination were being deposited, and writing down a random serial number within the larger denominations. Once the tellers looked at the deposit slips and understood what I was doing, my shortages mysteriously stopped.
The bigger issue was counterfeit bills. At one bank, we were getting nailed for a large percentage of counterfeits. I got PO'd after a short while. I required cashiers to write down the serial numbers of the $100s, along with the drivers license numbers of customers using them. The next time the bank said "Ohh, we have a counterfeit $100" I walked in with a list of the serial numbers of the bills, and said "Uhhh, nope. These are the serial numbers of the bills we took in. That one doesn't match." The problem stopped that day.
All of the above taken into account, I NEVER make a personal deposit of money without a face to face interchange with a teller.
BOA has been consolidating reconciling for a few years now. Money is taken to a central reconciling area within a greater metropolitan area and counted under video surveillance and with strict protocols. The plus side is that it is much more secure. The negative is that it can take a couple of days.
It didn't used to be this way. I used to have to make night drops of thousands of dollars. One smaller bank had issues. After getting burned a few times, I took to recording how many bills of each denomination were being deposited, and writing down a random serial number within the larger denominations. Once the tellers looked at the deposit slips and understood what I was doing, my shortages mysteriously stopped.
The bigger issue was counterfeit bills. At one bank, we were getting nailed for a large percentage of counterfeits. I got PO'd after a short while. I required cashiers to write down the serial numbers of the $100s, along with the drivers license numbers of customers using them. The next time the bank said "Ohh, we have a counterfeit $100" I walked in with a list of the serial numbers of the bills, and said "Uhhh, nope. These are the serial numbers of the bills we took in. That one doesn't match." The problem stopped that day.
All of the above taken into account, I NEVER make a personal deposit of money without a face to face interchange with a teller.
Harry -- you are wise. I worked in banking for 13 years, and several of customers were high cash businesses (gas stations) and in all that time -- I only had ONE counterfeit bill.
And I only saw one embezzlement -- and if the place that had that happened had done what you did.... it would have been caught long before it got as bad as it did.
I suspect that Harry may have had a little help from either an internal or external fraud investigation service, as the steps he outlined are textbooks ways the the internal cash audit investigations are conducted when banks suspects their employees are ripping off people. Of course that does not make them any less useful and it is helpful to remember that where ever there is a way to "beat the system" there is also a why to make the system harder to beat.
As to the OP -- I agree that odds are excellent that you will be properly credited for the deposit as the "bills count" of the secure cash box in the ATM is verified by multiple independent sources in pretty much all cases (except for ATMs owned by other banks). If another bank was involved you MAY need to have your deposit kicked up the cooperating bank, which will add time. Worst case I ever heard was when a restaurant manager used a third party ATM to deposit a big stack of cash receipts after a holiday and the bank that he used had a massive fire. Took months before the transactions were approved and the insurance company for the ATM network had investigators tailing the poor guy thinking he pocketed the money and torched the bank. Turned out kids torched the bank by accident.
I appreciate the compliments, but no, I didn't have help in figuring out what to do. A couple factors were at work. On listing the amounts of the various denominations being deposited, it helped me cut some numb-nut assistants of the habit of dropping singles and fives at the beginning of the weekends, only to come up needing them on Sunday. Writing down the serial numbers was my own idea because I was seriously suspicious and P.O.d, since it shorted our deposits and was a pain to drag through accounting.
Quick update - BoA, after a week, finally did turn my "temporary credit" into a "permanent credit".
Lesson learned - not sure. I'll probably continue to use the ATMs for cash deposits under $500, but only after verifying that the bills are good enough to be accepted by the machine. For routine deposits like that, the ATMs are simply too convenient. And I've used them without issue dozens of times.
B O A..I used the ATM today for deposit only and thats what happened to me $1,000 , rejected 2 bills , no credit to my account... immediately walked in to the branch to file a claim, they gave me a temporary credit
I hope its resovled quicker then a week! Never again will I deposit cash in ATM!..
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