Three things you can do if deposit delays hurt your ability to pay your bills

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

New York (CNN) — A payment processing error that caused delays in some deposits that were originally expected to post to customer accounts in the first three days of November was unwelcome news to bank customers who were affected.

The Clearing House, which is the private operator of the Automated Clearing House payments system, has since told CNN “the vast majority of … delayed payments have already been posted.”

Just how many institutions were affected remains unclear. But Bank of America, Chase and US Bank have confirmed they were among them.

Also still unclear: the number of accounts and all the different types of payments that got hung up. But it likely affected both personal and business accounts, and included not just direct deposited paychecks to employees but also payments individuals made to creditors (e.g., mortgage lenders, utilities and credit card issuers); as well as business-to-business payments.

If you were relying on a deposit to pay your bills and you came up short as a result of the delay — even if the money is now deposited in your account — here is what you can do to avoid getting dinged for a problem you did not create.

What to do if you were affected

Monitor your account: “Anyone directly affected by the deposit delay should closely monitor their account activity,” said Bruce McClary, a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Check your account to see if the money has come in and once it does, “check to confirm that the deposit was processed accurately,” McClary said.

Keep an eye out for errant fees: You want to avoid getting hit with fees and penalties.

That would include an overdraft fee from your bank if a payment was made from your account before an expected deposit showed up.

Your bank should be proactive about rectifying the situation. “We will work to refund overdraft fees caused by this,” said Thomas Kelly, spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase.

And last week the Federal Reserve urged banks to “work quickly” to resolve issues for their customers experiencing delays.

But if yours has not, contact your bank and let them know the situation needs to be corrected.

You also want to avoid a late fee or penalty interest from a creditor if your payment got delayed.

“If the deposit delay caused a missed payment, it can help to provide the intended recipient with documentation of the delay as you request the waiver of any resulting fees and other penalties,” McClary said. “The key is providing verifiable documentation that the delay was not your fault.”

If your bank has not contacted you directly to let you know you were among the customers affected, ask the bank to provide written confirmation to give to a creditor once you’ve determined that deposits to your account were involved.

The good news, McClary said, is that if your money was only delayed by a day or so, “the impact should be minimal.”

If things don’t get resolved, file a complaint with this agency: If you do get hit with an errant fee and you’re not having any luck getting through to someone who can eliminate it, you might consider filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which said it is monitoring how institutions are responding.

“The CFPB can confirm it has received complaints, particularly regarding consumers’ inability to pay their bills without access to their funds,” an agency spokesperson said. “Consumers affected by this processing error should not be penalized, whether by overdraft fees, late fees or other penalties. The CFPB will be working to make sure that consumers are made whole.”

— CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.

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