Bank statement panic

Tonight I was digging through the pile of mail that arrived in the past couple of days and came across my latest checking account statement. This is not good at all. I'd been going merrily along, thinking that because I keep track of my transactions and account balance I had nothing to worry about. I was wrong. I haven't used the internet banking feature even though I set it up this summer since I promptly forgot my password. I have occasionally gone to an ATM to check my balance before making a large transfer to savings, but I generally assume that my bank is doing what it is supposed to. Every month I check the statement, and until now there had been no surprises.

This time, a quick glance at the ending balance revealed that all was not as it should be. 623.51??? There should be over five times that much! The housing money didn't appear on the statement even though I deposited it a week before the statement period closed. It should have been available the next business day. Tomorrow I'll go sort it out. I'm still hoping that the deposit got credited in the past couple of days. If it hasn't been, I'll have to spend the time I really needed to catch up on school things that didn't get done this weekend proving to the bank that they owe me money. (This is why you should always save your transaction receipts.) Just how much of a hassle will this be? My bank is small, local, and has always had great service at the main branch so I'm hoping for the best.