zephear0

Hi -

Seeking some advice here. Long story short, a couple of months ago I mistakenly mailed a ~$1000 moneygram MO written payable to @mèx and with my @mèx payment slip to B@rcl@ys and it was somehow successfully deposited and cashed by B@rcl@ys with the following endorsement on the back of the MO (I requested the photocopy from Moneygram for $18) "Absence of Endorsement Guarantee", which I am not sure if it means anything at all. B@rcl@ys cashed the MO but obviously had no way of crediting my B@rcl@ys account.
So what do you think I should do here? Obviously two options:

1. Call B@rcl@ys and ask them to look up the cashed MO by the MO number. Have them refund me by check or credit my B@rcl@ys credit card. This will obviously set off alarm bells once they look at my account activity, which will show I mail them MO's and Billpay a combined $20K a month for the last 5 months. This in my opinion, could very well trigger shutdown of all of my as well as my wife's B@rcl@ys cards, for which I MS about $25-$30K a month in total.

2. Play the long game and eat the ~$1000.

Would appreciate any advice. Any way that you see that will allow me to somehow get the ~$1000 back without potentially triggering shutdown?

Thanks.

ChuckMango

option 2

NeGourmand

Can you use it normally for 2 statements, then inquire about a missing payment from a couple months ago, and provide the MO number/info? Eating the $1000 would be higher cost than not MSing 20k for 2 mos.

zephear0

That seems feasible. So you are basically saying that by using the card normally for 2 statements, they would likely look past the fact that I MS'ed and made all payments in MO's/billpays for the prior 5 months? I am somewhat skeptical but definitely an interesting idea.

Mamibear

OP I think you're in a catch 22 situation. You may not call now and just put charges on your cards and ask that the $1k MO be applied as statement credit but this will not happen unless you call or inform them via SM; either way, eyes will be on your account so just be prepared for adverse action, if any. Good luck!

zephear0

Thanks for the response. Catch 22 is a good way to put it. On one hand I am thinking I am close to getting shutdown anyways with all the MS and usage of WM Billpay, so just redeem all my points via travel statement credit and then ask for the $1K MO to be applied, and take the 50/50 (or maybe 75/25 unfavorable to me ) chance of getting shutdown seems a reasonable and rational course of action. On the other hand, another 4-5 months of MS will help me make up the $1K loss, and then I get to do X number of months of more MS.

Decisions decisions...

radonc1

With the amount of MSing going on you could be shut down tomorrow, even without you doing anything more.
Barclays has $1000 floating around on their books with no owner (yet) and I can guarantee you that their accounting department is going to find out who it belongs to.
And there will be eyes on your account no matter what you do.
So I would 1)clean out the account of any rewards 2) set up alternative accounts now just in case things go south and 3) call them and ask them about the missing $1000. (If you have a local branch and even better a personal banker, I would go into it and inquire directly. Sometimes there is a disconnect between the rats and their feeders and you may get away with correcting the situation without it getting higher than the local branch).

I suspect you already know this account is cooked. I just would not play the long game here because $1000 is a lot of moola to blow . However it's my opinion only.

RedSun

So you are supposed to send the MO to Amex? But sent to Barc? All the advice here is great. $1k is a very high price.

Mamibear

with that admission, once your acct is scrutinized, more likely 95/5 chance for a shutdown. All DPs I've read pertaining to Barc shutdown all said they are VERY sensitive to anonymous payments where WMBP falls under. I've read at least 3 bloggers admit WMBP caused their shutdown. As mentioned, best for you to redeem available rewards while you can before forfeiture. At this point, to expect 50/50 shutdown is wishful thinking based on Barc's notoriety towards other MSers doing WMBP. You and your wife are the only ones to decide on what is best for ya'll. Even if you don't call/SM to rectify the situation, it'll be found out sooner or later, so you may just be buying time for now. No matter what, $1K is a lot to lose, worse case scenario is they make it difficult for you to get the refund once they shutdown your household accounts.

tuphat

What about option 3: ask for refund of credit balance on the card to which payment was applied?

radonc1

Barclays received an Amex payment form (I guess the paper payment slip to pay the account balance) along with a $1000 MO made out payable to Amex. Barclays has no idea who the MO belongs to and I suspect no idea who sent it in. So someone in accounting is dealing with a deposit that was made (to who knows whom) which was not credited to the OP. It sounds like he has all the documentation that will back up his claim that the MO was his. However, this is going to put eyes on his account, and given the history he has related, means that Barclays is going to find out about his MSing.
While he may recover his 1 grand, it will almost assuredly mean the demise of his accounts.

So yes, he could ask for a credit balance but that is not going to change the fate that appears to await him. I just wonder if he closes his accounts before shut down whether that will make any difference in his ability to reopen in say 1 or 2 years from now. I have no idea.

tuphat

My bad. So the cash from the MO is in a suspense account at Barclays, and wasn't applied to card. As you indicate, OP appears to have enough documentation to claim that money belongs to OP. Assuming OP has a card acct at Barclays, just ask them to apply the funds to that account, then either spend or liquidate. All this stuff about scrutiny, shutdown, etc is overly dramatic. Said another way, it's likely not the first time that Barclays got an Amex payment voucher + check, by mistake.

zephear0

I definitely know that I am already at high risk of a shutdown due to my MS level here but I have no direct evidence that they are onto me. Your point about the account dept. investigating the extra $1000 in their account is a valid one, although it's been 2 months+ since the MO was cashed. I kept thinking that the MO got lost in the mail and kind of put off investigating it until now, thinking I just needed to pony up the $18 to get a refund from Moneygram.

Thanks for the tip about going to local branch to inquire, To my surprise there's one in the city so am definitely going to do that if I go the route of trying to get them to credit me, which I am leaning towards doing.

What do you mean by setting up "alternative accounts" though, apply for other B@arcl@y cards or non-B@rcl@y cards? I am assuming the latter as they would close down all my households' B@arcl@y cards, right?

Thanks.

zephear0

Yes - My wife and I each has a couple of accounts with B@rcl@ay's.

I keep a pretty meticulous spreadsheet of all my MO's sent by bank, date sent, amount, date cashed etc., but not by the MO number, so there's a 0.0001% chance that B@rcl@ay's could have already credited my account for this MO but have not received or credited me for a different MO for the same amount. Is there an even slimmer but still a chance that B@rcl@ay's could have cashed my MO, saw the @MEX payable to name and @MEX account number written on the MO, and transferred the amount to @MEX and either the money is currently sitting in an @MEX suspense account now, or @MEX has already credited me based on the account number, without letting me know? I really need to take the time and pull out Moneygram MO stubs for all MOs since the cashed date of the MO and with the same amount and look up the payment status one by one. Just haven't had a chance to do that but will start working on it tomorrow.

mia

Improbable. Around 1978 I put a check made out to Sears into a JC Penney payment envelope, and the JCP check into the Sears envelope. Both companies deposited the check they received, which resulted in an overpayment to one, and an underpayment to the other. Neither Sears, JC Penney, nor my bank thought there was anything that should have been done differently. It was not even slightly important to any of them that the checks were not made payable to the company that endorsed them.