I Had To Exchange Ruined Money At The Bank Today

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

Has anyone else ever done this? I found $272 in a bank envelope at my house that I had misplaced somewhere (I thought it was in the house but it could have been lost) three or four years ago. At first I was so glad to find the money I thought mighthave been lost (fallen out of my purse). Then I saw the money! It was ruined! All the bills were intact - none were torn - but the bills were discolored - it looked like a can of Diet Coke or something had exploded on them! I found them in the basement in a handbag I had stored down there. They had all gotten damp somehow.

I read online last night that banks will exchange damaged money for you if the bills still have over half of them left (mine weren't torn at all - just stained) and you could still read the serial numbers. Online, it said that even if you have money damaged that doesn't meet those two conditions, you can send it in to the Federal Reserve to be replaced; however, that can take a very long time.

My bank readily exchanged my bills for good ones with no hassle at all. The banker said, "this happens some times." He told me he's seen all sorts of ruined money. Fortunately, mine wasn't in such terrible condition that I would have had to send it to the Federal Reserve.

ceekay · ‎03-12-2010

@Pearlee - I worked in a bank a zillion years ago as a teller. We would get some of the nastiest money. Periodically we would band it up and send it back to the Fed as "mutilated" money. Some was almost paper thin and what we sent back was truly nasty. I swear they sent half of it back to us. I am glad you were able to get yours exchanged and what a bonus to find $272 out of the blue!!

goldensrbest · ‎03-10-2010

You seem to be having problems with paper items.

When you lose some one you L~O~V~E, that Memory of them, becomes a TREASURE.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@goldensrbest wrote:
You seem to be having problems with paper items.

@goldensrbest Not really. If ruined money (which happened some time within the last three or four years but only discovered over the weekend) and a mouse-eaten paper during my entire adult life - and I'm in my mid 60s - are my two "paper occurrences" - I wouldn't say I'm having a problem with paper items.

And the ruined money was not nearly as bad as it would have been had it been lost money!

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@ceekay wrote:
@Pearlee - I worked in a bank a zillion years ago as a teller. We would get some of the nastiest money. Periodically we would band it up and send it back to the Fed as "mutilated" money. Some was almost paper thin and what we sent back was truly nasty. I swear they sent half of it back to us. I am glad you were able to get yours exchanged and what a bonus to find $272 out of the blue!!

@ceekay Very interesting post (and yes, it was very fun to find the money and know it wasn't lost. I didn't think I could have lost it but I looked hard for it once and didn't find it where I thought I'd put it). Am curious why the money your bank sent in was sent back to it? Weren't the feds supposed to take it?

goldensrbest · ‎03-10-2010

@Pearlee,Lighten up, only joking because of mice ,thread.

When you lose some one you L~O~V~E, that Memory of them, becomes a TREASURE.

ceekay · ‎03-12-2010

@Pearlee - I can only guess that the Fed disagreed with what we thought was awful and no one wanted to touch and they thought it still had some life in it! So, back it came! Still spends the same but who wants to touch nasty money??

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@goldensrbest wrote:
@Pearlee,Lighten up, only joking because of mice ,thread.

@goldensrbest Perhaps if you would have put a smilie after your thread so I could tell you were trying to be humorous, you wouldn't have needed to admonish me to lighten up. Which I don't think I need to do since I couldn't tell how you meant your post.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@ceekay wrote:
@Pearlee - I can only guess that the Fed disagreed with what we thought was awful and no one wanted to touch and they thought it still had some life in it! So, back it came! Still spends the same but who wants to touch nasty money??

@ceekay I sure didn't! That's why I traded it in for less nasty money!

I actually washed one off last night and it was dry by this morning. I even used it to purchase something, even though while the front was pretty darn clean, the back of it was still nasty. However, I had a lot of bills (47 of them were single dollar bills and 15 of them were fives, among others!) so I sure as heck didn't want to wash and "lie flat to dry" LOL all that darn money.

By the way, I noticed the banker who exchanged my nasty money used hand sanitizer immediately thereafter! LOL As did I.

dex · ‎03-09-2010

@Pearlee

@Pearlee wrote:
@goldensrbest wrote:
@Pearlee,Lighten up, only joking because of mice ,thread.
@goldensrbest Perhaps if you would have put a smilie after your thread so I could tell you were trying to be humorous, you wouldn't have needed to admonish me to lighten up. Which I don't think I need to do since I couldn't tell how you meant your post.

That seems to be a problem these days when we don't converse face to face.I thought she meant it to be humorous and you didn't.I could have been wrong and you could have been right about her intent.IMO we need to give people the benefit of the doubt when we don't hear tone of voice or see body language.