Out of pocket

Vikas Joneja. Photo / Greg Bowker

Vikas Joneja is sticking with his bank - even after an error that left him temporarily out of pocket by over $4000.

But much of the reason he will stay is because his mortgage is with the same bank that gave him a financial headache.

If he changed, he would face paying fees associated with changing a mortgage.

An error by the bank this month saw $4501 taken from Joneja's Westpac account after writing out a $450 cheque for his gardener's ASB account.

When he later went to an ATM to withdraw money, he was astounded to find he was in overdraft. When Joneja called the Westpac call centre he was told somebody would call him back in a couple of hours.

After a couple of hours he again rang the call centre.

When he asked the bank what had happened he was told $4501 had been taken because staff saw a dash at the end - marked to show there were no cents - and had mistaken it for a 1.

He got the money credited back into his account days later.