When 56-year-old Derek Monroe had his check bounced at Old National Bank, he realized his money wasn’t coming as expected.
Monroe was trying to transfer money from a Wells Fargo checking account she set up for her son for college to a new financial institution, she told The Sun.
Using two checks issued by Wells Fargo would enable a simple transaction of $25,000, if Monroe expected.
But Monroe’s account with Wells Fargo was a non-checking bank account.
Remove the Account Banking account, the type opened for his son by Monroe, do not do checking and customers are told about it when they open one, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo told US Day.
Wells Fargo told Monroe that he had not been issued the wrong original checks, and that his son at the University of Illinois would have to visit the Chicago branch in person to get any cash.
Monroe said she traveled 11 hours and more than 400 kilometers in two days to take her son back to school after taking a bus in the city to visit the department.
“I don’t understand the corporate governance and culture at Wells Fargo as the only thing I can compare it to is a pirate ship with no navigational controls,” Monroe told The Sun. “You can’t do these things.”
She sued the bank for negligence and breach of contract, but Wells Fargo later apologized and offered Monroe $750 – which she accepted.
Starter cheques, or counter cheques, are short-term checks that banks can issue to customers quickly.
These checks do not contain personal information such as name and address, but they do contain your account number and bank code.
Personal checks need to be printed and can take time to deliver, while original checks are available at branches there.
Account holders still need to fill out their personal information on the check itself when listing the dollar amount and the amount it’s made out to.
For any other account, these checks can be easy, as long as they are accepted by the receiving merchant – which is not always the case.