A pack of smokes for US-$ 23,148,855,308,184,500.00

[Syt]

BBC: US smoker chokes on cost of habit

A man in the United States popped out to his local petrol station to buy a pack of cigarettes - only to find his card charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.

That is $23 quadrillion (£14 quadrillion) - many times the US national debt.

"I thought somebody had bought Europe with my credit card," said Josh Muszynski, from New Hampshire.

He says his appeals to his bank first met with little understanding, though it eventually corrected the error.

It also waived the usual $15 overdraft fee.

"It was all back to normal," Mr Muszynski told his local television station, WMUR. "They reversed the negative balance fee, which was nice."

Debt crisis

His nightmare began when he checked his online bank account a few hours after buying the cigarettes.

He thought he would be a couple of hundred dollars in the black. But his overdraft had pushed him into the red - by an amount equivalent to many times the entire US national debt.

"It is a lot of money in the negative," he said. "Something I could never, ever, afford to pay back.

"My children could not afford it, grandchildren, nothing like that."

In panic, Mr Muszynski rushed back to the petrol station, but they were unable to help. He says he then spent two hours on the phone with the Bank of America.

Eventually, it assured him it would be fixed - and the next morning, it had been.

But no-one has yet explained to Mr Muszynski how such a astonishing error could have been made.

15$ overdraft for such a transaction seems a bargain.

[Caliga]

There's no man in America that goes to his "local petrol station" 

IT'S A GAS STATION DAMMIT. 

[Alatriste]

There's no man in America that goes to his "local petrol station" 

IT'S A GAS STATION DAMMIT. 

Last time I checked, gasoline was still a liquid. Face it, the Brits have got it right.

[Neil]

There's no man in America that goes to his "local petrol station" 

IT'S A GAS STATION DAMMIT. 

Last time I checked, gasoline was still a liquid. Face it, the Brits have got it right.

They both have it wrong.  They're not putting petroleum in their car, they're putting gasoline in.

[Lucidor]

There's no man in America that goes to his "local petrol station" 

IT'S A GAS STATION DAMMIT. 

Petrol station doesn't serve food!

[DGuller]

Smoking is an expensive habit.

[Josquius]

I should really check my account more often...

[swallow]

Even more choking is that the real price of the cheapest pack, one measly pack, of cigarettes in our local super market is £2.75

[Kleves]

More  than the cigarette smoke itself? 

[HisMajestyBOB]

They're really jacking up the cigarette taxes.