Wells Fargo customers find dividend surprise

Oct. 14, 2005

TRACY KALYTIAK\Frontiersman assistant editor

Some Wells Fargo bank customers briefly saw twice the amount of their $845.76 Alaska Permanent Fund dividend added to their balances after the state automatically deposited the checks into their accounts Wednesday morning.

Elaine Junge, vice president for Wells Fargo Alaska region's marketing, on Thursday said a computer glitch affected all direct-deposit transactions - not just PFD deposits - for 100,000 of the bank's customers for a couple of hours Wednesday morning, showing double the amount deposited until the computer remedied the problem by 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

&#8221It wasn't just dividends, but it was midweek, not a payday, so it was a pretty low volume. The PFDs were the primary impact,“ Junge said in a Thursday phone interview. &#8221The problem was not within the actual system processing the deposits. We have a front-end system that got the wrong information and showed it up twice. It self-corrected, it knew it was doing that.“

Customers would not have been able to withdraw more than the money that was actually in their account from an automated-teller machine or via a store transaction, but it would have been possible to transfer the money via an online transaction.

Junge hastened to say that anyone who tried to transfer the apparent extra money they saw in the account would have quickly found the account overdrawn and their action brought to the attention of bank authorities.

Wells Fargo is taking a look at its processing procedures to prevent the same problem from happening again, Junge said.

&#8221It was just a little blip, it's all under control,“ she said.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. next year will direct-deposit checks Oct. 4 for people who apply in January. But those who apply online after January will see their money Oct. 19. Paper checks will be mailed out beginning Nov. 14.

Junge said Wells Fargo is offering a $100 bonus to PFD recipients who open an education savings account. &#8221The PFD has long-term impacts for the children of Alaska,“ she said. &#8221An education savings account is a good product for saving for education.“