Banking Question

[siwil1]

Not related to racing unfortunately!

Does anyone know what the rules are regarding a credit to a bank account which you dont believe to be yours?

Scenario.... An old bank account which is not used very much appears to have an amount credited a few weeks ago which clearly should not be there. What should be done? what are the consequences?

Any Bankers out there who can advise

[UKBob]

The bank has no legal authority to withdraw monies accidentally deposited into the wrong account by person/company who deposited the money. The person who deposited the money needs to write to the owner of the account, and must go to the courts if necessary, the bank cant/wont step in, and the person who deposited the money has no right to the money, other than that granted to him by a court after legal proceedings have taken place.

So lloyds told me this morning, when for the 3rd day running 7k failed to materialise in my account Give it back mate, if its your account which has suddenly been credited(?) You'll help slow down the aging process for people in my situation It would be immoral to keep it, your mind should be telling you

[UKBob]

PS, you dont have my money do you

[meeja]

It'll show up in an internal audit somewhere along the line.

If it was me, I'd move the money into another account in a different bank, but not spend it, and see what happens when they ask for it back (which at some point, I'm sure they will)

[volvos70t5]

What should be done? You should find out where it came from, write to the Manager of that branch advising them of the error and asking them to contact the account holder who in due course will contact you.

What other reasonable course of action is there?

[tinman0]

Erm, I'm not so sure.

If the money is not yours regardless of it being in your account - it doesn't belong to you. Just because it turned up in the account doesn't mean it yours.

Personally, I'd contact the bank and get them to investigate it. If you move the money then I'm pretty sure you are lining yourself up for a theft charge.

There was a case a couple of years ago where someone was overpaid. The bank denied all knowledge of it so they went on the Mother of a spending spree. The bank a few weeks later asked for it back and she got prosecuted and lost.

[UKBob]

volvos70t5 said:

What should be done? You should find out where it came from, write to the Manager of that branch advising them of the error and asking them to contact the account holder who in due course will contact you. What other reasonable course of action is there?

Agreed. Life offers infinite choice, and its the actions and choices we decide to make in life which ultimately define us.

In short, give it back unless its a lot of money

How much are we talking about anyway?

[TeamD]

Once a few years back, my bank credited one of my accounts with half a million quid, I was honest.
















How does that song go? "If I could turn back time..."

[chrisgr31]

I think it depends where the money has come from.

If the bank make an error and credit your account incorrectly then they can take it back (odd that!)

However if someone else doing an interbank transfer sends the money to the wrong account they have to go to court to get it back. Presumably the reason being that the recipient can tell the bank that the money should have come to them.

We have a case in the office where a colleague gave the boss the wrong account number, so someone else was the lucky recipient of her wages. Boss asked the bank for them back and they said that they couldn;t say who had them and we would need to sue to get the money back.

Edited to add:

I suppose its upto ypu to decide what to do with the money. If it belongs to someone else who has sent it to you by mistake then they would like it back, as you would in their shoes. However if you were in their shoes would you get it back? Suppose you need to know who sent it to you and whether they can afford to lose it! You could offer it back and hope they reward you for doing so.

>> Edited by chrisgr31 on Wednesday 3rd August 12:01

[Nevin]

chrisgr31 said:

I think it depends where the money has come from. If the bank make an error and credit your account incorrectly then they can take it back (odd that!) However if someone else doing an interbank transfer sends the money to the wrong account they have to go to court to get it back. Presumably the reason being that the recipient can tell the bank that the money should have come to them. We have a case in the office where a colleague gave the boss the wrong account number, so someone else was the lucky recipient of her wages. Boss asked the bank for them back and they said that they couldn;t say who had them and we would need to sue to get the money back.

This is pretty much correct. Your Terms and Conditions with the bank will likely state that they can withdraw from your account any money deposited to it by them in error.

[993SC]

I've currently got an amount sitting in my ltd co account that is an overpayment by my agents.

As soon as I noticed it I emailed and phoned my contacts at the agency and the payroll person there of all the details of the overpayment but they just don't seem to want the money back.

I'm just going to leave it there and watch it earn a little bit of interest.

There's only so much you can do isn't there.

[JonRB]

I seem to recall a fairly heated thread on this in the past.

The conclusion, as I recall, was that keeping money that is not rightfully yours is theft. And I think most would agree that, morally at least, it probably is.

As for one's legal position, I can't recall what the consensus on that was. Probably best to find that previous thread. I'm afraid I don't have time to right now but perhaps someone else could.

[UKBob]

JonRB said:

I seem to recall a fairly heated thread on this in the past. The conclusion, as I recall, was that keeping money that is not rightfully yours is theft. And I think most would agree that, morally at least, it probably is. As for one's legal position, I can't recall what the consensus on that was. Probably best to find that previous thread. I'm afraid I don't have time to right now but perhaps someone else could.

Its as simple as this

A few PHers are debating whether by a chance encounter, they can take money which was earned by and belongs to someone else, morally disengaging themselves due to the lack of human interactivity in the electronic transfer. Id call it opportunistic delusion.

Standing in a long queue in Tesco: If the woman ahead of you accidentally dropped her purse in your basket of veggies, would you tell her she would have to take legal action to get it back?

This kind of intellectual debate makes no more sense then the governments reasoning behind each and every 'cleverly' worded ploy to rip us off. With my superior brain I can see this

[Podie]

You got off lightly... www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13399559,00.html

[siwil1]

UKBob said:

PS, you dont have my money do you

Sorry ukbob it's not lloyds and no where near £7k its only £150!

I have taken the moral stance and rang the bank they

"will look into it"!

Thanks for all the replies

Simon

[UKBob]

Podie said:

You got off lightly... www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13399559,00.html

I love those stories

siwil1 said:

UKBob said: PS, you dont have my money do you Sorry ukbob it's not lloyds and no where near £7k its only £150! I have taken the moral stance and rang the bank they "will look into it"! Thanks for all the replies Simon

Good man

For some people, £150 is a massive amount of money, single parents, students etc, the world isnt just made up of wealthy faceless businesses, giving it back is the only cool thing to do

[seb400]

The issue of banks mistakenly crediting an account was covered in Ombudsman News in November 2003 (issue 33).

Basically it has to be repaid, unless in good faith you believe the money to be yours, and have changed your position (ie spent it) because of that.

Link