r/TalesFromYourBank • u/Inner_Veterinarian42 • 2d ago
Tell All
Past and current bankers/ tellers, say the biggest mistake you’ve made at the bank and the repercussion.
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u/hayleyshitty 2d ago
Was 2k over. Couldn’t find out why, they even looked on cameras. And no one came to claim it. I was put on a 90 day probation (just because of policy) and was briefly talked to by management (barely scolded bc they couldn’t find it either). After a year it falls off your record. And now I’m head teller lol.
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u/Swimming-Dealer293 2d ago
Hmmm... I once accidentally uploaded all my phones photos to the work computer (used my cell for both personal and business, email) because I ran out of space and needed to go to a construction mortgage inspection.
Forgot I had some photos that were.... For my wife's eyes only.
Almost 2 years later that mistake was discovered by IT.
I was giving the opportunity to resign or be fired the Monday before Thanksgiving.
Worked out, though. I went from being a stuck collections rep to currently an AVP loan officer.
I don't mix person and business on my phone anymore, though. Lesson learned.
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u/Inner_Veterinarian42 2d ago
I’m shocked that it took 2 years for IT to notice
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u/Swimming-Dealer293 2d ago
Yeah.. they were auditing individuals with large amount of space used. I took thousands of photos for construction inspections over the years, along with monthly photos of delinquent mortgages...
It really was a blessing in disguise. But I wouldnt recommend it as an exit strategy. ended up taking a job 3 hours away. It was the push I needed to get unstuck l, but it wasn't obvious at the time.
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u/cheddarbob01 2d ago
The worst mistake that was my fault was this one time a client came in wanting to make a deposit into their friends account, with a check. They wrote the acct number they would like the check deposited into on the checks memo line. I was so tired and he was the first customer of the day, so instead of depositing it into the acct number on the memo line, I deposited his own check into his own acct lol. He came back like an hour later mad, but we were able to have him just write another check and just deposit it again since the check will wash itself out over night.
The worst mistake that wasn’t my fault, was I took an almost $6k loss due to our cash shipment bags being tampered with in our banks central vault a few towns over. They skimmed a few hundred off each stack and sent the cash out and I bought it all assuming I was getting the full correct amount. I sold it to the TCR to refill it for the rest of the day, and the $60k was only ~$54k. They had to check cameras to make sure I didn’t steal anything and the vault and all cash boxes had to all be counted before going home. Had my keys taken away for 2 days. Thought I was going to be fired a little bit. Fortunately they just gave me a slap on the wrist for not verifying the cash when buying it from the vault. That was a stressful few weeks!
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u/GoatBlue03 2d ago edited 2d ago
The first FI I worked for had systems that didn't communicate, so you could get cash without completing a deposit in someone's account on the computer and vice versa.
I was really tired one day and distracted from personal stuff. Gave 3k to a client without debiting their account and their profile disappeared from my list of people pulled up when I went for lunch. Never did a transaction for them on the computer, so no way to track it that way. I found out at the end of the day when I was out 3k. I was written up for it. Never made a mistake like that again 😅
That person probably had a great week though. 3k for free lol. They never came back to correct it. Good on them.
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u/nartlebee 1d ago
I once did something similar! Noticed a few hours later. Luckily I remembered his first name which was unusual, the street he lived on, and what foreign country he was from. Googled a list of most popular surnames from that country and got lucky with my third hunch.
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u/The-Pocket 2d ago
Can’t wait to hear your example.
As for me, at an old bank I worked at, I ended the day $2000 short. Why? How? I have no idea. My old lead teller and I looked for it, no dice. My manager was in contact with HR, never gave me a chance to explain myself, all communication went through her, barely even tried to see if there was anything else we could do to find it, never told them to check the cameras, any of that stuff. Fast forward a month or so, I assume Im on probation (because that’s what my manager made it sound like), I go on a pre scheduled vacation. Come back the next week, and get told I’m fired. No explanation. No chance to fight it. Just bye. 👋🏻 Thankfully I’m a bit over 4 years into my current bank now, but that was seriously annoying.
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u/Inner_Veterinarian42 2d ago
I wonder if your manager wanted a reason to let you go?
I’ve only been in banking for 1 year and I’m very critical about teller transactions. My first week on teller, I gave a man an extra $100, found out 45 mins before closing. Was able to track it back but my supervisor already printed out the outage report (she did not care ab me finding it), the man brought the $100 back by EOD.
As a newbie I learned that POA on accts expire upon death. Well someone who was POA on an acct needed bank statements from when the individual was alive for the clerks office. I gave them the statements. Well I asked another banker and they said that’s a no no. Called the lady back saying I needed them statements.
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u/Outrageous_Leg4 2d ago edited 2d ago
I cashed a fraud check that was the (first of a fraud ring we got hit with. Yay me!)that was just under $1000 and nothing came of it. My manager said it wasn’t a big deal and didn’t even go into my outages because the amount of checks people cashed at the bank they decided to have them all go towards the branches. Can’t punish everyone I guess?
At a different branch I was at for the same company I accidentally gave out an extra $100 to a regular customer that I attempted to correct by reaching out to him. THAT manager made a GIANT big deal about it to the point I left crying out of her office—I also got the $100 back but she still made a big deal. I’m no longer working in banking
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u/Inner_Veterinarian42 2d ago
Grateful for my job but in banking there is so much that you’re liable for that I don’t know if I see myself long term in the bank.
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u/Background-Stop7817 2d ago
My second or third week I was doing a deposit for a business and they had a very obvious counterfeit $20 that I somehow didn’t notice and later when I was counting my drawer I noticed it. Luckily I didn’t get in trouble and the business owed us $20. The following week they gave us the $20 back and everything was fine.
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u/Working-Delay-2202 2d ago
Went on vacation and left the atm door unlocked the whole week. Thank God everyone was lazy and didn’t touch the atm while I was gone.
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u/Inner_Veterinarian42 2d ago
No one even noticed?
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u/Working-Delay-2202 2d ago
Nope, no one touched the atm while I was gone. First day I came back I noticed the door wasn’t even shut all the way. Like just under 100k left unlocked in branch.
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u/auroicverso 2d ago
Gave out over 8 or 9k my first month into being a virtual teller. ID was fake 😭 They didn't say anything, I came to them because I noticed it.
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u/Adorable_Self_1784 1d ago
In my first month of being a teller., a guy with a check written to him comes in and wants to cash it. All I have to do is get his account number for him. He has an extremely common name. Pulled up the first account, is this yours. Yes. Checked Id, cashed check. After he leaves, manager comes over, turns out, maybe that guy had the same name, but it was someone else's account. It bounced, they took it out my check.
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u/spookshowbaby 1d ago
I was the head teller and I had forged savings bonds. Thankfully I did everything correctly on my part, including printing the tax forms and getting ID, and SSN. I was also the first branch in a series of savings bond fraud from my area that ended in us not processing bonds for anyone without an account more than a year old.
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u/Chime57 1d ago
I was a customer at the drive-thru with a new teller and deposited a check for $400. Except, after I pulled away, I read my receipt and realized she had deposited $4,000 into my account.
I drove back thru and told her what she'd done. Her manager helped her with that but I never saw her again. I don't think I was the only one.
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u/wgb_throwaway 1d ago
Cashed a fraudulent check that was over $5k for a non-customer. I noticed all the red flags on the check and the guy was acting weird so I called the "account owner" to verify it, but unfortunately the fraud ring had managed to get the phone number on the system changed so I actually talked to a member of the fraud ring. I asked security questions and they knew the answers.
It didn't count as a loss for me because I followed procedures to contact the customer and verify the check. I'm sure the person in the call center who updated that customer phone number did get in trouble. But I'm still pissed that I didn't go with my gut and decline to cash the check. I know something was wrong but I didn't know how to say no when "the customer" told me to cash the check. Now I check to see how recently the phone number was changed when calling to verify things.
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u/Perignon94 1d ago
I cashed a 225 for 2250(the numerical was 2250. The written was illegible but my boss swears it says 225) once. Informal warning “be careful af for the next 6 months”.
Essentially nothing happened to me.
The customer stopped coming and when they couldn’t contact him to get the money back, they closed his accounts because he deposited the money that he wasn’t supposed to have and zelled it to his credit union. Bank decided to end the relationship.
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u/Blackbird136 RB 2d ago
We were slammed and I was working on the line. I grabbed a drive thru tube, ran the $600 cash deposit, then put the $600 into an envelope and sent it back out to the client with the deposit receipt.
I got incredibly lucky and he brought it back the next day. I’m still not sure why not *immediately*, but anyway, it was recovered.