Check your bank-records...

Message boards : The Lounge : Check your bank-records...
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
Profile Jord
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 29 Aug 05
Posts: 15478
Netherlands
Message 26043 - Posted: 16 Jul 2009, 5:25:07 UTC
Last modified: 16 Jul 2009, 5:26:03 UTC

This may happen to you as well. Oh, don't we like electronic money? :-)

Source

A technical snafu left some Visa prepaid cardholders stunned and horrified Monday to see a $23,148,855,308,184,500 charge on their statements.

That's about 2,007 times the size of the national debt.

Josh Muszynski, 22, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was one Visa customer aghast to find the 17-digit charge on his bill. Adding insult to injury, he had also been hit with a $15 overdraft fee.

He noticed that his debt exceeded the world GDP while making a routine balance inquiry on his online Bank of America account. According to his statement, he had spent the profound sum in one pop at a nearby Mobil gas station -- his regular stop for Camel cigarettes.

"Very, very panicked," he jumped in his car and sped to the station.

Had they perhaps noticed any "outrageous" charges come across their books recently, he inquired of the cashier there. She checked the records. They had not.

Muszynski wondered aloud what he might possibly have asked to purchase for such an astronomical price. "Can I buy Europe on pump 4?"

He next called Bank of America, the issuer of his Visa prepaid debit card. The bank kept him on hold for two hours, during which time he contemplated the impossibly bleak financial future that might await him. He also felt a stab of fear that he had saddled all his unborn grandchildren -- and their grandchildren -- with a lifetime of debt. "Down the generational line, nobody would have any money."

Finally, a bank representative told him that the $23 quadrillion charge -- and the $15 overdraft fee -- would be stricken from his account.

Muszynski compared the giant debt reprieve to receiving "an amazing Monopoly card that says, 'Bank error in your favor.' "
advertisement

In a statement, Visa said the rogue charges affected "fewer than 13,000 prepaid transactions" and resulted from a "temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services ... [which] caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts."

The company assured customers that the problem has been fixed and that all falsely issued fees have been voided. "Erroneous postings have been removed ... this incident had no financial impact on Visa prepaid cardholders."

ID: 26043 · Report as offensive
John37309
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 28 Jul 07
Posts: 91
Ireland
Message 26110 - Posted: 19 Jul 2009, 6:28:04 UTC

Its a good story. The guy must have purchased an oil tanker load of gas from the station...LOL

John.
| Irelandboinc.com | PaddysInSpace.com
ID: 26110 · Report as offensive
Walt V

Send message
Joined: 20 Jul 09
Posts: 10
United States
Message 26155 - Posted: 20 Jul 2009, 17:20:57 UTC

Not just the tanker, but the oilfield as well, pehaps even the employees and equipment.
ID: 26155 · Report as offensive

Message boards : The Lounge : Check your bank-records...

Copyright © 2024 University of California.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.