I once had a $35 check clear the bank for $4,035. That caused a domino effect of bounces. But the bank fixed it up -- I even got them to write me a letter of explanation to give to my landlord, and use in the future for any credit questions.
My wife is a bit anal about the bank (she's an accountant). She used to call the 800 number every morning (that was before online banking) to double-check the balance. It was quite common to see random discrepancies of as much as $5, which would resolve themselves the next day (this was a different bank than the anecdote above). I have no idea how that happened, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the monthly bottom line.
Indeed they do. Not only do banks make mistakes, but the Federal Reserve does as well. For those who don't know this, the Fed is responsible for national check clearing (other than bank-to-bank cash letters, what we in IT would call direct peering). The Fed is the operator, for check clearing, of what we would call the core routers.
A number of years back, the Fed made a mistake in my favor (a sizable mistake). I discussed it with the bank. The bank said they had to wait for the Fed to resend them the correct item. We're both still waiting. Sooner or later I'm going to give up waiting :)
That last part of what you write is what it is all about. This did make a difference to my bottom line.
The mistakes bank make are all backdated and your statement is adjusted, you'll never see the difference once it's all over. But what paypal did here created a mess that will take quite a bit of work to untangle when it needs to be explained to Her Majesties beancounters.
Indeed. Seems like PayPal is a good argument for the anti-regulation philosophy. Reputation on the free market is just as good a protection/guarantee as any regulation. Of course it would be even better if PayPal had stronger competition.
I once had a $35 check clear the bank for $4,035. That caused a domino effect of bounces. But the bank fixed it up -- I even got them to write me a letter of explanation to give to my landlord, and use in the future for any credit questions.
My wife is a bit anal about the bank (she's an accountant). She used to call the 800 number every morning (that was before online banking) to double-check the balance. It was quite common to see random discrepancies of as much as $5, which would resolve themselves the next day (this was a different bank than the anecdote above). I have no idea how that happened, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the monthly bottom line.