My $1,981.05 Mistake
Yup, you read that correctly. I recently made a $1,981.05 mistake. Like all mistakes, it wasn’t intentional. I simply didn’t pay attention. I didn’t double-check my work.
Have you ever made an online bill payment error? A big error?
I did for the first time in I don’t know how long, so long I can’t remember. A couple of weeks ago, instead of paying my final City of Ottawa property tax bill for 2011, I sent over almost $2,000 to Sears Financial for a balance I never had. That’s right, I owed Sears Financial nothing. I owed the City of Ottawa Revenue Division two grand instead.
What did I do? Well, first, I panicked. Then I felt a bit of remorse. Then I got mad at myself. During my foggy transition from remorse to anger to rational decision-making, I called my financial institution, told them what happened immediately after the transaction and they promptly launched an investigation to get my money back. I also called Sears Financial and informed them of my error. Both institutions, thankfully, were empathetic and understanding. Notably, the customer service representative at Sears Financial, Ann was her name, said I should get the money back “no problem because you don’t owe us any money”. That was reassuring. Over the days that followed since my online payment error, the “back office” of my bank called the “back office” at Sears Financial to get their internal processes going to return the money. After calling my bank a few days after my hiccup to find out the status of the refund process, the bank’s customer service representative reassured me as well, saying “don’t worry about this, we deal with these things all the time.” I guess misery does have company, lots of it for this stuff.
Last week, I got our money back from Sears Financial, to the penny. While I was annoyed with my mistake I was also very happy everything worked out, thanks to my understanding bank and the fine folks at Sears Financial. Mistakes are just that. Nobody is immune to mistakes no matter how careful you are. Laughing at them is also therapeutic, which I’m doing now as I write this post. As I age and make more mistakes (no doubt) I’ll try to remind myself how insignificant most of them are in the grand scheme of things. Al Franken had a great quote about mistakes that goes like this:
“Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.”
Well said Al.
Al Franken – U.S. Senator, former SNL comedian, actor, author, writer and radio host.
What do you think of my blunder? Have you ever made an online bill payment error? How did you handle it?
Cheers,
My Own Advisor
I’m glad it all worked out for you. At CIBC (and I assume the other banks) the payments are not processed until later that day so if you realize your error right away you can cancel the payment online or by calling an agent.
Thanks! Believe me, I’m glad it worked out too!
Been there done that, fortunately it was only $300 (supposed to be $30). Congratulations on this appearing in the Globe and Mail (Carrick’s Reader) btw!
Cheers
Thanks for the support Ninja!
Thanks also to Rob Carrick at the Globe and Mail as well.
Now, did it cost you anything? Recently I made a mistake – I wrote a cheque to pay my PC Mastercard bill, and inadvertently used a PC bank cheque, in place of the one I meant to use. The PC bank account had very little in it, so it was NSF. PC bank dinged me for $40 for NSF, and PC Mastercard another $25! So, if I had been paying off a bill of $65, then my effective annual interest rate charged would be … oops, my calculator is overheating, so I cannot do it right now. So, beware of “no-fee” cards and accounts!
Hey Craig,
Thanks for stopping by! I think they might charge me $10.00 eventually for some administration fee to get the money back; dealings between the back offices of those two institutions, but I haven’t seen that deducted yet
Geez, something similar happened to you too eh? It happens a great deal I think, but hopefully never again for each of us. Deal?
Thanks for the post.
I made a similar error during a move. I paid a bill to my old account number. I was dealing with Reliance Home Comfort. The amount involved was small (about $23) but it took me several phone calls and more than two months to resolve. In my case I chose to deal with Reliance only, as I did not think it necessary to get the bank involved. In hindsight, I should have notified my bank. I suspect it would have been resolved more quickly.
Hey Raj,
Thanks for checking in. Yeah, I think, unfortunately, misery has company on this one
I’m glad I called the bank ASAP. They don’t care as much about my money as I do, unless they are going to loan it out of course! I have to admit, they treated me pretty well.
Give me a break this happens all the time, I can’t believe that any organization out there would not facilitate the correction of a mistake like this?
Hey AceCool,
Fair enough, but I was freaked out because of the dollar value. Maybe a $50 bill payment, I wouldn’t sweat so much but hopefully I won’t make the same mistake again for a LONG time to find out
Watch those bank tellers, as they are prone to sending payments to the wrong online payee accounts. Always double check and back check. Verbal instructions are prone to misinterpretation by less than attentive tellers.
Ah yes, those bank tellers!!!!!!!!!!! Kidding. My bank records all customer service calls, so worst case scenario, the bank could roll back the tape
I mistakenly sold 250 shares of BCE because the default was set to the first stock in the list. I realized my error right away and bought it back – for a $42 profit! What’s the lesson there?
Hey Steamboy,
Geez, I dunno about the lesson. Maybe make a mistake on a down market day to buy-back stocks cheap?
I love cheap stocks, but that’s another set of stories. Thanks for stopping by.
Really? It’s not like Sears was going to take your money and run with it. Instead of waiting for them to repay it, you could’ve just gone and spent $1,981.05 at Sears and considered it ‘pre-payed’.
Hey Steve,
True, they are not running away with it but then again, I think the outcome would have been different if I owed Sears money.
When I pay bills on my bank’s website, I always try to set a future payment date, instead of making an immediate payment. This gives you a second chance to cancel the payment if you make a typo, or get your bills confused (something I think has happened to everyone).
Hey Kevin!
I have discussed this with my wife as well, making a future payment date. That way, you get to review the transaction pending a few times to ensure you got it right.
Or, then again, I could just read my screen
Mistakes happen, you fixed it and no consequences occurred. I think it did ok for a mistake.
They do Ginger, thanks for stopping by.
Good to hear you ended up ok. I can see how this would be a very easy mistake to make. Glad to see that the bank worked this out for you and no harm was done. Can’t say I ever made a mistake like that, but your article makes me see how easy it is to do and makes me want to be extra careful. Thanks!
Yeah, glad it worked out too. I was pretty worried for awhile!
Good stuff. Sorry to hear it, but glad you came out quick and square.
It’s a good thing you got that fixed. The emotional roller coaster ride is the downside of these mistakes!
I did the same thing! Now I don’t feel so silly
I think it’s inevitable these sorts of things happen when things can be so EASY, with the click of a button or a mouse!
What I did was I was trying to do a bill payment for our joint VISA card, and then I sent over the payment (which was due in a few days) to my personal VISA card which I didn’t even have a balance on. I called RBC and they fixed it within a few days, but it did cause me some grief, sweating palms, and a knot in my stomach.
You’re funny!
I know, I had the sweaty palms, etc. I’ll sure it will happen again, just hopefully not as big of a mistake! See, misery has company Y&T!