Bank Error Leaves Woman $50 Billion in Debt After Night OutPosted on June 23, 2021 *• Imagine waking up with a hangover and seeing this.You always get a bit nervous when you check your bank account after a night out. Unless you’re a real party animal, though, you don’t usually have to go into debt from having a few drinks… At least we hope.
But when Californian Maddie McGivern logged into her Chase online bank account on June 20, a particularly hilarious number awaited her. According to the Chase phone app, her account showed an overdrawn balance of just a
couple hundred short of $50 billion.
A TikTok video posted by McGivern’s friend explains that she and McGivern had gone out to the bar the night before. The video shows McGivern’s understandably terrified reaction.
“I swear to god it says negative $49 billion. What do I do? Negative $49 billion!” she yells in the video.
Another video posted a while later depicts a still distraught McGivern wondering what her life is going to be like now.
“I am $50 billion dollars in debt. What do you do when you’re $50 billion dollars in debt?” she laments.
Luckily, the astronomical debt was only an error. McGivern got everything fixed, and soon her bank account showed the correct balance of $76, with $681 spent on her night out.
Wait. That’s really not… That’s not good, is it?
“The margarita cost HOW MUCH?”Can I Put You on Hold?’According to McGivern, though, it wasn’t the easiest to get her $50 billion debt updated to the more realistic $600. She goes further into the ordeal with videos on her own
TikTok page.
“I wish I could say I bought the city of Los Angeles. It’s not the case here,” she says.
“I’m not really sure what inclined me to check my bank account at like 2 a.m. But I did,” she adds.
McGivern says that once she saw the erroneous debt, she called Chase bank. Which sounds like about the thing you should be doing in that situation.
According to McGivern, the discussion with the Chase representative was awkward to say the least.
“Hi, I’m negative 50 billion dollars in debt, and I’m not quite sure why,” she started the conversation.
When the representative asked if she had $50 billion, McGivern responded no, she had $76.
“Can I put you on hold? I’ve never seen this before,” she heard after a moment of silence.
After some waiting, McGivern was told that her account was scheduled to receive $50 billion — by the year 2099. She said that “would be sick,” but she wasn’t exactly sure if she was going to be alive at that point.
The issue couldn’t be resolved over the phone, and the representative asked McGivern to come into the branch the following day. After that, though, she luckily got her account updated.
‘Fix Your S***’McGivern says that the issue was caused by changes Chase implemented into their banking system. Customers had to change their account type, but if they neglected to do so, they started seeing some fascinating numbers.
“I will say it’s a scary as s*** way to grab someone’s attention. Clearly, they do that to grab your attention, because they want you to fix your s***,” said McGivern in another TikTok video.
“But it’s fixed and that’s all that matters. So no, I’m not 50 billion dollars in debt anymore, thank God.”
Chase confirmed that the McGivern’s outrageous debt was a result of a “technical glitch” that impacted “a limited number of accounts.” The bank says the issue has resolved and accounts are back to their accurate balances.
A Sudden BillionaireMore people than just McGivern had issues with Chase on the same weekend, though. In one case, however, the result was the exact opposite.
Julia Yonkowski, from Largo, Florida, discovered on June 19, that her savings had suddenly increased. When she went to withdraw $20 at her local Chase branch, her account showed a balance of
nearly $1 billion.
“I was horrified. I know most people would think they won the lottery, but I was horrified,” Yonkowski said.
Yonkowski said that she hadn’t touched her account since she saw the balance.
“I’ve read stories about people that took the money or took out money, and then they had to repay it, and I wouldn’t do that anyway because it’s not my money,” she said.
The following day – the day McGivern discovered her debt – Yonkowski tried calling Chase several times. However, their phone lines were completely clogged and she couldn’t get through.
When she finally got to visit her branch on Tuesday, she found out something fascinating. She wasn’t actually billionaire – the account was supposed to show a debt of a billion dollars.
Apparently, when Chase lock a bank account for suspicious activity, the change the account balance to show a negative $1 billion as a fraud prevention measure. Yonkowski’s husband had recently died, but the bank hadn’t received the proper documentation about it.
As a result, when Yonkowski tried withdrawing her $20, the system flagged the transaction as fraudulent. She said that the incident should be a learning experience.
Maybe Chase could try to get their act together, though.