People unaware they are accidently donating huge amounts of cash to banks

[Ohyesuare]

I know someone who used to work for one of the major banks in Canada and he told me that everyday a bundle of cheques come from other banks or credit card companies for payments made to invalid credit cards. Some of the cheques are as high as $10,000 or more.

Certain payments cannot be traced so the money goes into an account the bank has to write off losses and he says most of the people never call looking for their money and it just stays in there. I know many people who pay their credit card balance without ever looking at the statement so I guess they would just never realize that payment was missing.

Always make sure when you add a new credit card the number is correct and pay from online banking if you can so it is traceable if it goes missing.

 

[Blue-Spheroid]

Do you believe that?

Do you expect others to?


Payments to invalid accounts get returned to the account that originated the transaction. I know this is more boring than the myth above but it's also more true.

 

[K Douglas]

Oh I am aware - $15 a month service charge to start. Rogues!

 

[userz]

Banks must turn over balances that have been unclaimed for 10 years (i.e. the last transaction in the account was 10 years ago, or the bank draft/money order was issued 10 years ago) to the Bank of Canada. The BOC keeps Canadian dollar deposits and negotiable instruments issued by federally-regulated financial institutions for a few decades. You can find out if you have any unclaimed money by searching here:

http://ucbswww.bank-banque-canada.ca/scripts/search_english.cfm