From what I've seen, I think the first 3 digits of the BSB identify the bank chain, and the second 3 the branch. So it should be hitting the right banking chain, and not every branch is going to have 4 million accounts, so there is some degree of redundancy in account numbers. Not to mention the fact that when submitting the transaction you supply an account description, which they wouldn't just ask for for fun. You know how much banks love cutting costs, and storing that in a database for millions of transactions per day costs a lot of money which they'd happily skip if it wasn't used occasionally. I'm sure typos are very, very frequent, and for the same reason, the banks would hate to be reversing loads and taking phone calls to do so when a few quick computer checks to see that the account name is at least a rough match. If the banks don't already do that, I'm claiming ownership of the theory right here and now and will develop and sell it to them myself. I'm reasonably confident that laziness on my behalf and greed on the bank's behalf will see it through, but only one way to find out.
I don't mind waiting a couple of days before telling the bank to reverse it if it never makes it to Boston's account, not like either of us is going to miss $28 for a couple of days, and I don't feel like spending an hour or two trying to get through to a bank customer service rep if there is a (probably quite good) chance it will automagically work. And at least I'll know for the future if a single bad digit is a showstopper.
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I'm a software developer, and I just don't trust Internet Banking!
h34r: I know, ALL my friends/colleagues laugh at me!
I pay ALL my bills at the post office! Never had a problem, (except people are starting to charge $1:50-$2 for this privilege! grrrr). One of my housemates, once payed a house bill with his account, but had the Bpay details for previous house, that was not even valid, and it took ages for him to get it back! Also, I can show the bill with a receipt, stuck to it, to prove that I have paid it.
The banks will put heaps of effort into making sure that they don't loose money, but not so much effort into checking that YOU don't lose money. Admittedly, if the books don't balance, they most probably get to the bottom of it.
Has anyone seen this new ANZ Falcon add? They show all of this security that they put in place to help secure the customer. However, it showed him having to jump through all these hoops (iris scan, hand shake, break glass....), and then it doesn't even work, so he circumvents ALL these security hoops, and knocks on the window, and his mates let him in! So much for all this money spent on security. And real world shows that cards CAN and ARE stolen! It's a multi-million dollar business.
Also, do you really think it cost's the bank $2 for me to use another banks ATM????
GOOD LUCK GETTING YOUR MONEY BACK!!!!!! I hope you get it back without any hassle.