Bank Error in my favour, what should I do?!

td_007

Even if you report it or do not report it, the cashier will be in the docks (whatever form it takes). So, your phone is not going to help - after all it is not a sum that will break the bank or maybe it is who knows

gizmo111

I wouldn't contact them nor would I spend it. Whatever you do will make no difference to the cashier whose till won't have balanced today.

Extant

withnell wrote: »

How would the bank ever know which account was overcredited? I understand in a small branch / one where most people pay in using slips that it's easy, but what about a busy city branch where lots of people just come in with their debit card and stack of cash - whose account balance should be reduced?

Same processes should still be followed - a breakdown should be recorded either on paper or through software.

On top of that, you can narrow it down very quickly by examining audit - it's very unlikely that one customer would deposit £100 at, say 14:00 and then another £100 at 14:01 - and if you deliberately processed the transaction in that way, you'd likely remember it. If you didn't, examining a day's work (paying in slips, paper copies of the deposit receipts, etc. at least in Barclays, anyway) would quickly highlight a transaction without a matching piece of paper or without a breakdown recorded.

It's actually quite easy - that said, mistakes do happen, and I'd urge the OP to give it back. Not for the bank's benefit, but more for the cashier - it'll save them a huge headache, and at least on a human empathy level, it's the right thing to do.

jonesMUFCforever

All I will say is this - if the error was in favour of the bank would all the good and almighty posters on here leave it or complain that the credit was short?
Do the decent thing!!

never-in-doubt

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Same processes should still be followed - a breakdown should be recorded either on paper or through software.

assuming all banks operate this way.... I used to have a business account with Natwest and paid large cash in daily and they never documented it - they simply took my paying in slip which had the amounts written in. Many times i'd withdraw some for myself from my bank (en-route) and swap the 10 x £20 for 20 x £10 notes with the takings.

The pay-in slip was wrong but was never amended - stamped and swiped then put in drawer with rest of them!

BarclaysManager wrote: »

On top of that, you can narrow it down very quickly by examining audit - it's very unlikely that one customer would deposit £100 at, say 14:00 and then another £100 at 14:01 - and if you deliberately processed the transaction in that way, you'd likely remember it. If you didn't, examining a day's work (paying in slips, paper copies of the deposit receipts, etc. at least in Barclays, anyway) would quickly highlight a transaction without a matching piece of paper or without a breakdown recorded.

They wouldn't know when the mistake occurred though, not til they cashed up! So the actual audited time would be irrelevant! Lets say that particular cashier had 20 deposits of £100+ - how could they determine which one created the mistake...? Impossible!

BarclaysManager wrote: »

It's actually quite easy - that said, mistakes do happen, and I'd urge the OP to give it back. Not for the bank's benefit, but more for the cashier - it'll save them a huge headache, and at least on a human empathy level, it's the right thing to do.

Its not actually that easy, you make it sound easy but I do specialise in audit trails and internal fraud and things like this are not as simple as you sound. Lots of different data to take into account - banks usually just spend time searching all deposit slips with actual deposits into the account and then filter out the odd amount. Would take a few hours to sort out and be confirmed.

Its not for the OP to give it back, the bank will take it whenever they want so the OP should leave it in there and await the withdrawal. Will usually show as a sundry withdrawal (i.e. correction).

p.s. to clarify I do agree the OP should own up to it, maybe when he is next at the bank - but I wouldn;t go out of my way - they wouldn;t if it was reversed! That's a fact!

opinions4u

never-in-doubt wrote: »

Its not actually that easy, you make it sound easy but I do specialise in audit trails and internal fraud and things like this are not as simple as you sound. Lots of different data to take into account - banks usually just spend time searching all deposit slips with actual deposits into the account and then filter out the odd amount. Would take a few hours to sort out and be confirmed.

I found that you could normally narrow this sort of thing down to around one of half a dozen transactions within around 20 minutes. This was working in a Halifax branch, so there were no business transactions to contend with.

Its not for the OP to give it back, the bank will take it whenever they want so the OP should leave it in there and await the withdrawal. Will usually show as a sundry withdrawal (i.e. correction).

My view is that given that a receipt has been issued, the account shouldn't be corrected without the explicit agreement of the customer.

p.s. to clarify I do agree the OP should own up to it, maybe when he is next at the bank - but I wouldn;t go out of my way - they wouldn;t if it was reversed! That's a fact!

Where a cashier was over by an unusual or significant amount (not your £10 shorts that are virtually impossible to narrow down, but £50+ type amounts) I would narrow down the most likely transactions and write to the customers asking for them to contact us to confirm the transaction. More often than not this identified the customer who had been disadvantaged by the credit and allowed them to be properly reimbursed. Seemed like the right thing to do!

never-in-doubt

opinions4u wrote: »

Where a cashier was over by an unusual or significant amount (not your £10 shorts that are virtually impossible to narrow down, but £50+ type amounts) I would narrow down the most likely transactions and write to the customers asking for them to contact us to confirm the transaction. More often than not this identified the customer who had been disadvantaged by the credit and allowed them to be properly reimbursed. Seemed like the right thing to do!

If this happens then great - it would be good to know that my bank done the honest thing. I'm impressed if you took this approach - well done and fair play.

Just for the record, I am not saying that the OP shouldn't pay back what the bank messed up with, i'm simply saying maybe do it in person when he is next in that branch so at least they should be able to sort it quicker, hey who knows - if he owns up before they notice they may give him a freebie tenner or summat lol :beer:

Extant

never-in-doubt wrote: »

assuming all banks operate this way.... I used to have a business account with Natwest and paid large cash in daily and they never documented it - they simply took my paying in slip which had the amounts written in. Many times i'd withdraw some for myself from my bank (en-route) and swap the 10 x £20 for 20 x £10 notes with the takings.

The pay-in slip was wrong but was never amended - stamped and swiped then put in drawer with rest of them!

It's okay to tick a customer's breakdown back, and I suspect they were ticking back your total as being correct.

If their were significant variances in the amounts recorded, I would expect the breakdown to be altered by the cashier, and initialed by the customer. Anything else and it's clear cause for concern with many cashiers.

They wouldn't know when the mistake occurred though, not til they cashed up! So the actual audited time would be irrelevant! Lets say that particular cashier had 20 deposits of £100+ - how could they determine which one created the mistake...? Impossible!

I have never come across a cashier who actually had 20 deposits all for the exact same amount in one day, but that's an aside.

You also appear not to have read my post - as I said, a good cashier is recording their breakdowns etc as they go along. They find a £100 difference, and look through their audit on screen. They see two transactions, identical, seconds apart. They have a slip and a breakdown for one transaction, but not the other one.

Bam, that's where you start looking. Average customer transaction time is less than 4 minutes, anything so close together automatically raises suspicion.

Its not actually that easy, you make it sound easy but I do specialise in audit trails and internal fraud and things like this are not as simple as you sound. Lots of different data to take into account - banks usually just spend time searching all deposit slips with actual deposits into the account and then filter out the odd amount. Would take a few hours to sort out and be confirmed.

I make it sound easy because it IS that easy. Retail banks are robust audit environments to say the least, it does not take long to find a till difference at all. A few hours is ridiculous. A till difference does not require special investigators who specialise in audit trails and internal fraud to find.

Its not for the OP to give it back, the bank will take it whenever they want so the OP should leave it in there and await the withdrawal. Will usually show as a sundry withdrawal (i.e. correction).

There's nothing wrong with going back and saying you were given too much. It makes you look good to the bank staff, and might net you some favour - I sent hampers to people who were honest enough to bring it back. No idea if Natwest let their managers do the same, but I'd imagine they have something similar for complaint handling etc (FSA re: non-financial gesture of goodwill).

Just remember, bank staff are people too - wouldn't you rather be remembered by them as the honest person than the person who tried to get away with it?

p.s. to clarify I do agree the OP should own up to it, maybe when he is next at the bank - but I wouldn;t go out of my way - they wouldn;t if it was reversed! That's a fact!

That's not a fact - till overs are just as bad as till shorts, usually worse for the number of complaints they cause. There is no "black hole" for the money to go to, it goes to a specific account to wait for it to be claimed. And it is raised as a performance development point.

A till must balance, whether short or over, and the difference MUST be found where possible.

Pssst

There is a specific criminal offence of retaining a false credit.

willo65

never-in-doubt wrote: »

You wouldn't get a disciplinary at all - not unless it was a regular occurrence! There are such things as employment laws protecting employees from such misdemeanour's!.... mistakes can and inevitably do happen.

If the cashier in question was not so complacent then the transaction would have been correct - remember the OP did state that he advised them several times of the amount! Obviously hearing was the cashiers pitfall...... ?

The OP shouldn't ring, why should he have to pay to get messed about? Chances are they won't have a clue what he's on about in the CC anyway!

Notice I said if they have TOO many differences in my post.