When you imagine your bank making a mistake, thoughts of bounced checks and major headaches probably come to mind. It's not uncommon for banks to make errors that make your life more difficult.

In some cases, bank errors don't cause you any trouble -- unless you bring it on yourself. For example, if the bank deposits tens of thousands of dollars into your account (and it isn't your money), you might not even notice. However, if you do notice, it's probably best to leave the money alone.

A Pennsylvania man recently "lucked out" when he noticed that his account balance jumped from $40 to over $69,000 for no apparent reason. Of course, the bank deposited the money to the wrong account. He spent most of it, and now he's got problems.

It may seem unfair given how often banks mess up with our money (and the pain of resolving those errors), but removing money that's deposited in error can lead to serious trouble -- like felony charges. However, banks don't win 100% of the time. Consumerist readers pointed out one case where a bank error might have netted a prankster almost $100,000.

Further reading:

• How and Where to Deposit Cash

The conventional wisdom says that the "underbanked" are typically low-income people. They don't have much money, and they tend not to have bank accounts. As a result, they end up using more expensive (sometimes predatory) financial products such as:

• payday loans
• prepaid debit cards (especially those with high fees)
• check-cashing stores
• rent-to-own operations
• overdraft protection

A survey conducted by Think Finance shows that 18-34 year olds -- even if they have a good income --  use those financial products as well. In some cases (overdraft protection, for example), the people with higher incomes use those services more than people with lower incomes.

The survey suggests that the common understanding of the underbanked population may not be accurate. It's not just people with low incomes; young people are also underbanked. This study is pretty surprising, especially since these youngsters are "satisfied" about their experience with these alternative banking products. If they were paying less at a bank or credit union, you have to imagine that they'd be even more satisfied.

Further reading:

• Millennials Use Alternative Financial Services Regardless of their Income Level [via PaymentsNews.com]
• How and Where to Deposit Cash

Getting rid of debt is never easy. Some take the slow and steady approach, and some get aggressive. Most people will find the aggressive approach impossible or unattractive, but it's worth seeing how it can be done.

A recent graduate of the Harvard Business School recently paid off $90,000 in student loans over the past seven months. How? By going to extraordinary measures: practicing extreme frugality, getting a second job, and getting a few extra bucks by sharing his home.

Granted, most readers will say that they don't earn as much as this guy and they're not willing to break the law (by carrying around a flask of alcohol). Fair enough, but maybe you don't pay off your debt as quickly as he did -- you can still find creative ways to aggressively eliminate debt. If you can pay your 25 year loans off in seven years (instead of the seven months in this story), you're coming out ahead.

While Mr. Mihalic is a undoubtedly a fortunate individual who was able to attend Harvard, he also went above and beyond what most of us would do to wipe out debt.

ING Direct now allows customers to deposit checks with a computer or wireless device. The bank was once a pioneer in online banking, but it took them a while to get this service up and running -- a little too long, if you ask me. Now ING Direct products are once again just as competitive as other internet bank accounts.

I've been using another bank's remote deposit service to deposit checks from home lateley, and I have to say I love it. The process takes about two minutes. There's no need to mess with envelopes, deposit slips, or stamps.

ING Direct's CheckMate looks like it can keep up with any other bank's remote check deposit service. In fact, I think it has a nice feature: in addition to wireless devices, you can use a plain-old computer and scanner to deposit checks. Most banks and credit unions only allow you to make deposits with an iPhone, iPad, or certain Android devices.

Further reading:

• ING Direct: Image Upload Basics
• How Remote Deposit Capture Works