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Home >> Checks/Money Orders >> Checks You Wrote
Stop (and Go) Payment on My Check
I stopped payment on a $500 check three hours after giving it to a contractor on 10/8/09. I called the bank. On 10/9/09, I did another electronic stop payment. It showed up as a miscellaneous debit on 10/13 on my account. Customer service said it was forced through even though there was a stop payment and they don't know why and would have to research it and call me back. Two days later, they said the stop was on 10/9 - not 10/8 and that the check was cashed on 10/9 - before my stop payment. How can they nullify my call on 10/8, then my stop payment in writing on 10/9 and not post until 10/13?
Everyone I called at that bank's 800 line said they have never seen this happen and have no idea why it would have been forced through on the 13th. Then all of a sudden - they said is was paid on 10/9 - yet my online account still shows 10/13.
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 It looks like the bank can't get its story straight. Ask for an appointment to meet with your branch manager and ask that he or she have an explanation of what happened and when, as far as your stop payment and the check posting are concerned. Explain that you have been getting different explanations and that you aren't satisfied that the check was cashed before you placed the stop payment.
In the meantime, figure out whether you have actually lost any money. Did the contractor skip town with your $500, without doing any work, or is this a case in which you and the contractor disagree on what's due, and you were just trying delay paying him or her until your disagreement is settled? If it's latter, you may not be entitled to the entire $500, even if the bank made the error and paid the check after the stop payment was placed.
You are entitled to an explanation. Right now, the bank looks pretty sloppy, when even its own staff members can't agree that things were done properly.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 11/05/09
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