Moral Dilemma. ATM machine gave me $600 instead of $500. Should I call bank?

[BitChick]

OK, This is not related to Bitcoin but I was getting some cash out for a vacation.  Yesterday I withdrew the largest amount I could per day, $500.  The wad the machine gave me seemed a little thick.  I did not count it until I got home and the bank (Credit Union in this case) gave me $600.  My receipt says $500 and when I check my account online it says only $500 has been taken from my account.  I went back again today because I thought perhaps I was losing my mind and I actually had more cash in my wallet then I thought and wanted to make sure that it really happened.  It happened again!

So what do I do?  Do I keep going everyday and make an easy $100?  Do I call the credit union?  Are they legally allowed to withdraw the extra money from my account?  Will it show up somehow that they gave me $600 instead of $500 even though my receipt says $500?

Seriously,  I might feel a little guilty but part of me is happy to get some free cash.  Sad but true.  It might be a great way to buy more Bitcoin anyways.  Or should I take the higher moral road and call the bank?  I am erring on the side of withdrawing more.

[Lethn]

Oh man that sounds like a trap, be absolutely fucking careful, check things more carefully, have the charged you extra for withdrawing the money? Have they decided to put you on overdraft for the day? Honestly, I would normally go, fuck the banks because they get whatever they want from central banks anyway but you may want to check this with them. Or you could be sneaky and just double check their terms of service and all the usual data to see if any of this is mentioned.

I was with Halifax here in the UK and they had the the cheek to put me on overdraft because a transaction hadn't gone through yet but I know I was completely in the green, after that I switched. I just left my account there, what's amazing is they're still trying to sell me credit cards through the posts too >_< don't trust a thing they do, I have heard stories about how people have accidentally gotten money through bank error though.

I've grown a lot more paranoid lately thanks to all the intelligence leaks lol

[BitChick]

Oh man that sounds like a trap, be absolutely fucking careful, check things more carefully, have the charged you extra for withdrawing the money? Have they decided to put you on overdraft for the day? Honestly, I would normally go, fuck the banks because they get whatever they want from central banks anyway but you may want to check this with them. Or you could be sneaky and just double check their terms of service and all the usual data to see if any of this is mentioned.

Well,  I checked my account online and the $500 was shown as withdrawn.  The receipt the ATM gave me was for only $500 too.   We have enough money in the acccount that if they wanted to take the $200 back now they could without any overdraft issues.  I am not sure how they would know who got the extra cash though?  If the counter is broken and the receipt shows only $500 what can they do?  Can they legally take more from me?  I am not even sure they can if they cannot prove it.

[hope4me]

Oh man that sounds like a trap, be absolutely fucking careful, check things more carefully, have the charged you extra for withdrawing the money? Have they decided to put you on overdraft for the day? Honestly, I would normally go, fuck the banks because they get whatever they want from central banks anyway but you may want to check this with them. Or you could be sneaky and just double check their terms of service and all the usual data to see if any of this is mentioned.

Well,  I checked my account online and the $500 was shown as withdrawn.  The receipt the ATM gave me was for only $500 too.   We have enough money in the acccount that if they wanted to take the $200 back now they could without any overdraft issues.  I am not sure how they would know who got the extra cash though?  If the counter is broken and the receipt shows only $500 what can they do?  Can they legally take more from me?  I am not even sure they can if they cannot prove it.

Not first case. Keep the receipt, dont approve you got 600 and they cant do much unless the camera can show the 600 if you counted money in front of ATM.
In any way dont abuse it trying withdraw again soon

[BitChick]

Oh man that sounds like a trap, be absolutely fucking careful, check things more carefully, have the charged you extra for withdrawing the money? Have they decided to put you on overdraft for the day? Honestly, I would normally go, fuck the banks because they get whatever they want from central banks anyway but you may want to check this with them. Or you could be sneaky and just double check their terms of service and all the usual data to see if any of this is mentioned.

Well,  I checked my account online and the $500 was shown as withdrawn.  The receipt the ATM gave me was for only $500 too.   We have enough money in the acccount that if they wanted to take the $200 back now they could without any overdraft issues.  I am not sure how they would know who got the extra cash though?  If the counter is broken and the receipt shows only $500 what can they do?  Can they legally take more from me?  I am not even sure they can if they cannot prove it.

Not first case. Keep the receipt, dont approve you got 600 and they cant do much unless the camera can show the 600 if you counted money in front of ATM.
In any way dont abuse it trying withdraw again soon

I did not count the cash in front of the ATM.  I guess it will start looking fishy if I keep going back everyday. We will be gone for 2 weeks so by the time we are back I am sure the glitch will be fixed.  Oh well. 

[solex]

If the machine is faulty then loads of other customers will also be getting free money and it will soon be reported to the bank. They will check through the list of accounts which had withdrawals during the period and will try to verify each entry. You might get contacted, and then the question of volunteering to return the extra can't be avoided.

A credit union sounds like a small institution owned by its members so it is morally better to report what happened.
If it was a one of the primary dealer bankster banks (BoA, JPM, HSBC etc) then let them figure it out first as they have wrecked so many lives with their shady financial practices, they are morally bankrupt anyway.

[BitChick]

I called the credit union.  The woman on the phone said she had never had anyone call to say that they had gotten too much cash.   They did not say if I could keep the extra cash or not.  The lady was not sure what to tell me.  Oh well.  Either way my conscious is clear.

If it was Citi Bank I would not have been so nice though.

[Vod]

OK, This is not related to Bitcoin but I was getting some cash out for a vacation.  Yesterday I withdrew the largest amount I could per day, $500.  The wad the machine gave me seemed a little thick.  I did not count it until I got home and the bank (Credit Union in this case) gave me $600.  My receipt says $500 and when I check my account online it says only $500 has been taken from my account.  I went back again today because I thought perhaps I was losing my mind and I actually had more cash in my wallet then I thought and wanted to make sure that it really happened.  It happened again!

So what do I do?  Do I keep going everyday and make an easy $100?  Do I call the credit union?  Are they legally allowed to withdraw the extra money from my account?  Will it show up somehow that they gave me $600 instead of $500 even though my receipt says $500?

Seriously,  I might feel a little guilty but part of me is happy to get some free cash.  Sad but true.  It might be a great way to buy more Bitcoin anyways.  Or should I take the higher moral road and call the bank?  I am erring on the side of withdrawing more.

Do the christian thing.  Keep it and pray to your god for forgiveness.  You have $100 extra and a clear conscious! 

[WEB slicer]

i would keep it.

[Foxpup]

All ATMs internally keep track of how much cash is loaded and how much cash is dispensed, the people refilling the ATMs also record how much cash goes in and out, and the bank records how much they're paying to fill the machines and the total amount withdrawn. If an ATM is dispensing more cash than it's actually deducting from customer's accounts, these records won't match up, and the bank will find out about it sooner rather than later. At that point, it's not hard for the bank to check if anyone's been making more withdrawals than usual from that particular ATM and begin fraud investigations. Depending on which records are still accurate, they may even know exactly who's been receiving too much money and how much, without having to resort to such guesswork. Either way, if you haven't reported the error, you can expect your accounts to be frozen and possibly be arrested for fraud. Given that the bank would have to be grossly incompetent for you to not get caught, it's not worth it.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Maybe the ATM programmer is beta testing to dole out $500 worth of buying power next month. Come September, it may take $600 to buy what $500 buys today.

[cryptasm]

If it was a high-street bank I would say keep withdrawing as much as you can. Been as it's a credit union, in the end you will probably be taking someone's savings so probably best to report it and give the money bank.

[J603]

Do the christian thing.  Keep it and pray to your god for forgiveness.  You have $100 extra and a clear conscious! 

If it was a high-street bank I would say keep withdrawing as much as you can. Been as it's a credit union, in the end you will probably be taking someone's savings so probably best to report it and give the money bank.

Either way, if you haven't reported the error, you can expect your accounts to be frozen and possibly be arrested for fraud. Given that the bank would have to be grossly incompetent for you to not get caught, it's not worth it.

i would keep it.

I think the thread's resolved guys. OP already said that she called the bank.

I called the credit union.  The woman on the phone said she had never had anyone call to say that they had gotten too much cash.   They did not say if I could keep the extra cash or not.  The lady was not sure what to tell me.  Oh well.  Either way my conscious is clear.

If it was Citi Bank I would not have been so nice though.

[michaelburger]

Go to the bank tomorrow and return the money. The error may never get caught but it's the right thing to do. This is why I've lost faith in humanity. You KNOW what the right thing to do is yet you come to an online forum to ask what to do? You are just looking to justify keeping the money sounds like.

Nothing personal. It just needs to be said. People need to better themselves or this earth will always be a shit hole.

[BitChick]

Go to the bank tomorrow and return the money. The error may never get caught but it's the right thing to do. This is why I've lost faith in humanity. You KNOW what the right thing to do is yet you come to an online forum to ask what to do? You are just looking to justify keeping the money sounds like.

Nothing personal. It just needs to be said. People need to better themselves or this earth will always be a shit hole.

I already called the bank.

[Twilight_Sparkle]

How sure are you that you actually received an extra 100$? Are you absolutely sure that you did not have that 100$ to begin with? I just mean that it is much more probable that you made a mistake rather than the atm.

Since you already called the bank, keep the 100 for right now and wait a month. If you are contacted by your bank about the missing 100 (and if it they did give you extra money, like the others have said, they have so much paperwork and accounting backups, that they WILL notice the missing money) just let them know that you did call back for proof of goodwill, and then do whatever seems appropriate.

[BitChick]

How sure are you that you actually received an extra 100$? Are you absolutely sure that you did not have that 100$ to begin with? I just mean that it is much more probable that you made a mistake rather than the atm.

Since you already called the bank, keep the 100 for right now and wait a month. If you are contacted by your bank about the missing 100 (and if it they did give you extra money, like the others have said, they have so much paperwork and accounting backups, that they WILL notice the missing money) just let them know that you did call back for proof of goodwill, and then do whatever seems appropriate.

I counted twice but I already thought about that.  With everything going on planning for our vacation I could have just mistakenly thought I had less in my wallet. But I called then and they were going to check the machine and see if it was working correctly or not. 

[Stuartuk]

Usually a repeating overpay of this sort is caused because notes have been placed into the wrong feeder - so that where there should be 10's the person refilling the machine mistakenly puts 20's.

As well as the valid CU argument bear in mind someone could loose their job over this but that may be less likely if most of the money is returned.

[EscrowBTC]

If you want to withdraw 500&, recepit(500$) and the account was decreased with 500. The ATM gives you 100$ free, then enjoy your free money. We shouldn't have mercy for banks!

[michaelburger]

If you want to withdraw 500&, recepit(500$) and the account was decreased with 500. The ATM gives you 100$ free, then enjoy your free money. We shouldn't have mercy for banks!

Stealing from a thief still makes you a thief. Any way you look at it it's not your money, you don't have the right to steal.