It doesn't matter if it matches, it's still wrong

I was on vacation last week and stayed in a chain hotel that had been converted from an old bank building built in the 1920s, which was a pleasant upgrade from the usual location-independent decor. The breakfast area was held in what was clearly the old vault – as evidenced by the fantastic vault door and swath of old safe deposit boxes sandwiched between stale muffins and the inevitable waffle bar. I was not the only one taking photos, mind you; it was visually stunning. Really made you think about the days when money was cash and coins and trips to the bank every other Friday to deposit your paycheck.

Today, banking is, for the most part, invisible numbers flying around the digital ether. Direct deposit is no more than invisible numbers flying through the digital ether to land in an infinitely small space in a massive server farm that happens to be assigned to you, and like magic, the numbers show you have been paid money. For whatever. In this case, work: Your employer almost exclusively deposits your paycheck into your bank account via direct deposit instead of printing you a physical check that you need to endorse, bring to a bank, and have it exchanged for cold, hard cash.

Now, how do we (your employer) know where to send a direct deposit? Why, routing and account numbers! All banks have unique routing numbers that tell the digital ether where approximately to send (Or: Route! See what they did there?!?!) the invisible numbers that comprise your paycheck. Your account number is then the final destination for the ones and zeros that equal your paycheck. Think of the routing number as the zip code and the account number as the street address.

When you get hired, your employer is going to ask you to opt into or out of direct deposit within the first five minutes of the first day of work. The majority of people opt IN, as they get their paycheck immediately. There are still a few souls out there who opt OUT and have to either wait for their paper check in the mail (which can take 3-5 business days) or pick up their check at the office. Then they have to go to a bank (or another place that cashes checks) to get their money.

Woe unto them if they end up at the local chain hotel looking for a bank teller and find a pot of oatmeal, I suppose.

When you opt into direct deposit (or DD as we will henceforth call it), you are required to provide your routing and account numbers. As previously discussed, that will tell the system where to send your money.

Of key import to this story is the fact that DD is automatically set up by the system using the information you provide. There is no middleman typing in your routing and account number somewhere else. Why? Several reasons.

1. To avoid some middleman accidentally typing in the wrong numbers.

2. To avoid being accused of accidentally typing in the wrong numbers.

3. So we can stick the responsibility of entering the correct information back on you to avoid being blamed for any issue that might arise when a DD fails.

You see the point I’m driving at here? Whatever information you fill out is taken as the ultimate truth. If it comes back as wrong, that's on you.

To recycle my earlier street address metaphor: No middleman means no mailman is delivering the your letter to the wrong mailbox.

And thus you can guess where I’m heading.

I had a contractor call in last month stating he didn't get his paycheck. Upon opening his file, I saw that the check 'bounced back' from the bank. What does that mean? Something in the routing and/or account numbers was incorrect, and the bank was unable to process his DD. The banking system then sends the DD back to us (all within the digital ether, of course), and we need to either have the man provide us with the correct banking information or cancel his DD altogether and receive a paper check instead.

I went through the details with the guy, and he was (naturally) confident the information he provided was correct. I told him that the bank sent the DD back to us citing an incorrect account number. The man wanted to confirm the information he put down on his DD enrollment form, so I explained how he could compare the information on his DD enrollment form online to whatever information his bank provided to him.

The man confirmed what was on the DD enrollment form was, in fact, what he had intended to write down.

Problem solved? Not so much.

I explained to the man that the bank indicated his account number was incorrect, which is why his DD bounced back to us instead of being processed into his account. The man obviously didn't understand what that meant because he continued to tell me that the information on his DD enrollment form matched the information he had written down from his bank. I told him it didn't matter if the information matched. It was incorrect. It wouldn't automatically just be 'right' because the DD enrollment form matched what he thought was the right number. He needed to call his bank to get the correct information.

It took a good five or six minutes of me attempting to explain that to him before he simply decided to use another bank account he had altogether, cancelling the one that was incorrect and filling out a new form with the alternate banking information.

I would say I hope he wrote it down correctly, but really, I’m kind of hoping he wrote down my account number.