Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

BANK ERROR

by Bert Stratton

I caught the bank in a $505 error. The bank had debited my account instead of crediting it. I said to the bank clerk, “I’ve never caught the bank in an error before. This is great!” The clerk, on the phone, didn’t react. I’ve been checking my bank balance my whole life, and it paid off at last.

My friend Carl never checks his balance. He says the bank never screws up. How would he know? My adult kids never balance their checkbooks. They laugh that I do. Stop laughing! That was a $1010 swing, kids (-$505 instead of +$505).

bank error

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I wrote “Punk rock guitarist versus the St. Edward High band” for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Friday (11/27/15). About noise wars.

st eds marching_band

St Edward High marching band

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4 comments

1 Faruk { 12.02.15 at 10:33 am }

I caught $27,321 when my mortgage was funded. It was added to the loan amount as fee! I check my balance every day.

2 Seth B. Marks { 12.02.15 at 4:53 pm }

Hey, this cries out for more info. Were you in a rush? Was the check given to you, deposited directly to your bank; via a teller (or con dios) or ATM, money order, eft’ed? alone or with other checks? were there deposits to several accounts or just one? handwritten or printed? Was this the first time in 30 years? I use to be like you now I’m closer to Carl though I check periodically, if you’ll pardon the pun.

3 Bert Stratton { 12.02.15 at 5:25 pm }

To Seth B. Marks:

It was a rent check, which I deposited. I looked on my bank statement at the end of the month, and it was listed as a debit instead of a credit. The bank clerk said she would look into it; she sent the matter to some scrutinizing board, which took several days to reverse the charge. Happy ending.

This was the first time in 30+ years the bank screwed up. Often the bank catches my errors and gives me money.

4 Ken Goldberg { 12.02.15 at 10:43 pm }

Bert, since you found this a great experience, you might as well ask them to continue making errors – at least once each month.

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