I'm not admitting to anything, but apparently an extra zero got added onto a pymt and now several thousands of dollars are processing through my checking account as I type.

I assume it will be taken out of our overdraft protection and our checking balance will then be zip, zero, zilch?

I've sent an email to the bank, and otherwise I can't inquire until it's finished processing.

Anyone been through this? I'd like to do whatever I can right now... and have an idea of what will happen so I can sleep tonight

Sympathetic pats on the back and words like "Don't worry, it's all going to be ok" are also appreciated.

If you alert them soon enough, they can cancel the payment. Also, it's a check, right? Put a stop payment on the check?

Sleep well, it can't be THAT unusual.

I didn't catch it soon enough to stop payment - I set it in motion yesterday and checked on it this afternoon and then I fainted.

It's an electronic payment, not a check. It was meant to be an extra pymt on our home equity loan. I'm guessing they (hel) won't reverse it or send it back to me. And now I'll owe on the overdraft plus interest because it's put on the bank credit card. Now I'm scaring myself even more.

did you do this trough the banks site that has your Home equity loan? I did a similar thing with my mortgage and a quick call to them they were able to cancel the payment for me.

Those transfers take time to clear. Call the bank. They can stop it.

Do it now.

Call. I did something similar when I transferred money to my retirement savings plan.

For the future, you might consider an account that won't let you do that.

This is part of why I run my bill payments now through ING. They won't run a payment through if you don't have the money. And while they give you a small overdraft protection line, you get charged a quite reasonable interest rate (lower than many people's credit cards, around 11%) only for the time you have the overdraft. I try to use my brick-and-mortar bank checking account only for cash.

While I've never had to call ING about this sort of thing, every time I have called them they have been very prompt to answer the phone and very helpful.

The one major negative about ING is that checks you write against the account get pulled immediately, not when cashed, so they are keeping the float. Since the account has 3.x% interest, that doesn't bother me much; but I also don't write many checks. The one time it was a major problem, I paid for an event I wasn't able to attend and they sent me the check back. I had to mail it back to ING to get the money put back in the account. Otherwise, they will refund the money after a few months of not being cashed.

There are probably other banking accounts that prevent this sort of mistake.

--Another Satisfied ING Cultist

I did that once, overpaid my dentist by 1800. I had the money to cover it so I just had a credit. Unfortunately I can blow 2k at the dentists pretty easily.

So you screwed up. You know what that makes you? Human! (I'm channeling Dave Ramsey)

Do you have a credit card? You could give your self a cash advance to cover it. (That may actually cost more than paying the bank fees. It's a solution, though I haven't thought it all the way through.)

Thanks everyone, it's nice to have company during a stressful time. I just got off the phone with them. The payment can't be stopped because it's already being processed - once it reaches this point there is no going back.

So, what we've done is canceled the overdraft protection so the payment will be kicked back as INSF, instead of being taken from the attached CC. I will be charged for that - by both my checking account bank and probably also by the bank I made payment to. Once it's all gone through I can call and ask to have the charges forgiven.

Now I'm just nervous as I wait for it all to play out and hope that it goes as smoothly as possible. It's scary having $7k floating around like that.

Daedala, I actually do have an Orange checking account but we've never used it. You can call me a happy ING Cultist, too I only write maybe 1 or 2 paper checks per month, so that's not an issue for me. I think maybe it's time to make the switch.

Lesson - always double check the amount you've scheduled for Bill Pay. I think after 4 years of use I became a little too comfortable and lax.

wait - did you call THE BANK? Because, I did this once with Vanguard. I sent them an automatic investment out of my checking account twice. Vanguard told me what you just said - once its processed, no return. But the BANK where it is getting withdrawn from can usually do an ACH return.

I would love to speak glowingly about my credit union and how i made this big boo boo and they fixed it for me, free of charge.....

Yes, Danielle, it was the bank (checking and bill pay) that I called. The payment is *in* the middle of processing, not already processed or pending processing. I was told it could clear any minute and there's nothing they can do to stop it. If only!

Basically what will happen now (I was told) is that the pymt will be kicked back as INSF, and then I'll be charged and insf fee by my checking account bank and maybe also by my home equity loan bank (ING). Once I see those charges I can then call and ask to have them removed - and to also have the overdraft protection reinstated. And since I've never had an INSF charge before, they said it's likely it'll be forgiven.

I'm not sure what ING will do - this was an extra payment, not regular, but I don't know if that matters.

Other than suggesting you call the bank, which you've done, I can't offer any help. I can sympathize, though, as I accidentally paid our credit card bill twice a month or so ago. I'm still not sure how I did it (just spaced out, I guess) but we ended up with a whopping credit. Fortunately, we had the cash on hand so I just left it in place to cover the following month's charges.

I would try calling ING just to let them know whats going on. They can at least note the info in your account and I would hope it would give you a better chance of having the fee forgiven.

I've called ING and once everything settles then my checking account bank, myself, and ING will have a 3-way conference call in order to straighten it all out. I've been a customer of ING since 2001 with never any problem - I'm pretty confident that they'll give me a break on this.

Last night the pymt finally hit my account - a big fat negative balance. A 2nd automatic attempt at payment will be made at midnight Thursday. On Friday I'll see what the damage is and try to sort it all out.

Right now all the bank can tell me is that my other bill payments, scheduled for the same day, did clear. They can't tell me what has happened or will happen to any ATM withdrawals or debit card charges.

A huge pain in the you know what, but it could be worse. I remember many years ago, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, my bank made a mistake and didn't credit my pay check deposit. I had to physically go to my bank and discuss it all and then I had to take a letter from my bank (it said it was their fault, not mine) to all the places I'd written a check and ask them to forgive the fees for my bounced checks - and I had to take cash with me to cover the checks. At least now I can deal with it all over the phone.