Bank error caused by another account holder

Skanked

Hi,

I'm trying to help this woman at work, she is a widow and has 2 kids, low income (teacher) etc. and no one to fight her battles.

Basically, someone managed to deposit money in her account by mistake. The bank have called her up telling her to pay £500 she received in error.

She did not realise (I must admit I do find this statement hard to believe but anyway) and spent the money.

She wants to pay back the money but she can't do it all at once. She is willing to pay £100/month

Also, she wants nothing to do with the other person involved i.e. she doesn't want her name to go to this person.

The Bank are being very difficult (they do not want to get involved or take any payments) and this is causing her great distress.

Is there Data protection acts that prevent the Bank from making her deal with the other guy? What rights does she have? Do the Bank have a role to fulifll here?

Any help would be great as I don't know how to help her.

Lokolo

The money never belong to hers to spend.

She maybe a widow, with kids and a low income job, but do you know the other person's circumstances? They could be worse off.

The bank will not pass her information onto the other person as they data protection act stops this. (I am not sure whether the other person can go to court and force the banks to release the information though).

Your friend is right to offer some money but she should never have spent it in the first place. She really needs to pay it back, be a good citizen and so on.

Skanked

Thanks for the reply, she wants an easy resolve but the Bank refuses to get involved and are being very difficult, she is adamant that she does not want to deal directly with him. What should she do?

Lokolo

Skanked wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, she wants an easy resolve but the Bank refuses to get involved and are being very difficult, she is adamant that she does not want to deal directly with him. What should she do?

Write a letter to the bank.
Send a cheque for £475 to the bank.
Say you are deducting a £25 administration fee.
Done.

She needs to find the £475 from somewhere which should not have spent though....

Skanked

Cool, thanks a lot.

Will the Bank then have to repay the £25 or will the client lose the £25 as it is his error?

She doesn't wanna lose sleep over £25 but if you assure me that this is legitimate practice then I think those parties involved deserve to learn their lesson and be more careful next time.

Thanks again

PasturesNew

As a teacher and a widow with two kids she's probably still got a lot more money than thousands of other people, so emotional blackmail over her income/position wouldn't really work and shouldn't be used to garner sympathy. She's probably actually raking it in.

What if that £500 is 2 years' savings for somebody aged 84 who lives alone in a rented studio flat and the money was for one last trip of a lifetime to go visit the war grave of their beloved/parents/friend?

dzug1

Skanked wrote: »

Cool, thanks a lot.

Will the Bank then have to repay the £25 or will the client lose the £25 as it is his error?

She doesn't wanna lose sleep over £25 but if you assure me that this is legitimate practice then I think those parties involved deserve to learn their lesson and be more careful next time.

Thanks again

The bank will not have to pay the £25 - it is not their error. They did what they were instructed.

The client will lose the £25, not because it's his error (which he is legally entitled to have rectified), but because unless the thief (which is what this woman is if she doesn't pay it back) can be identified there is no practical way of enforcing the rectification of the error.

MrCarrot

The same thing happened to me recently (see another thread).

Someone else ended up with £1000 of my money. Fortunately the bank sorted it out before the money was spent.

In this case, if the person in question is in financial hardship, they must have realised they suddenly had an extra £500 in their account? This would not go unnoticed as it might with someone who has £20k in their account.

Anyway, legally it is not her money and she must pay it back. If she refuses, the person who it belongs to can take her to court and sue her for the money. First they would have to obtain a court order to get the bank to reveal her details since they are protected by data protection. Be advised though, explaining to the bank why the details are needed and "threatening" them with a court order could be enough for them to reveal the details.

I am surprised the bank aren't willing to provide a mechanism for the amount of £100 a month to be paid to the person who lost the money. I have known this to happen in the past when the money has been spent.

Extant

Lokolo wrote: »

Write a letter to the bank.
Send a cheque for £475 to the bank.
Say you are deducting a £25 administration fee.
Done.

She needs to find the £475 from somewhere which should not have spent though....

This is terrible advice.

The bank has not necessarily made an error, and this lady has no right to levy a fee (against the bank or this gentleman) regardless. You can't just decide to bill someone.

This is ultimately another case of someone being frivolous with their money and having such a loose hand as to not realize they had £500 too much in their account.

Remember, this is her bank. They could just debit her the £500, or the £25 if she tried that.

Remember, there is the slight legal issue here. There's enough precedent on this to show a judgment WILL get her details from the bank, and a court WILL order her to re-pay the £500 to him.

She needs to work on alternative solutions, i.e. borrowing it from a family member, etc.

Debt_Free_Chick

Skanked wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, she wants an easy resolve but the Bank refuses to get involved and are being very difficult, she is adamant that she does not want to deal directly with him. What should she do?

I'm confused now .....

She is dealing directly with "the other person"?????

How did they get in touch with eachother? Does she actually know this other person? Is there more to this story?

opinions4u

Skanked wrote: »

I'm trying to help this woman at work, she is a widow and has 2 kids, low income (teacher) etc. and no one to fight her battles.

She has herself.

Teachers may not be in the highest pay bracket, but let me assure you that teachers cannot be described as low paid (and I'm not playing the hourly rate card here ).

Basically, someone managed to deposit money in her account by mistake. The bank have called her up telling her to pay £500 she received in error.

She did not realise (I must admit I do find this statement hard to believe but anyway) and spent the money.

If she is on the poverty line (as implied) she'd have noticed the £500.

She wants to pay back the money but she can't do it all at once. She is willing to pay £100/month

In the circumstances this seems reasonable to me. But if she can afford more she should pay more.

Also, she wants nothing to do with the other person involved i.e. she doesn't want her name to go to this person.

Keep it that way.

The Bank are being very difficult (they do not want to get involved or take any payments) and this is causing her great distress.

Make the offer in writing to the bank. State clearly that she does not wish to have her details passed on to anybody else. Get them to photocopy the letter and stamp it to confirm receipt. Keep the photocopy. This will give her an element of moral high ground should the bank refuse to deal with the matter and should she ever have to pursue a complaint.

Is there Data protection acts that prevent the Bank from making her deal with the other guy? What rights does she have? Do the Bank have a role to fulifll here?

Yes and yes.

Any help would be great as I don't know how to help her.

Could she raise the money via an overdraft and clear the overdraft within 5 months? Would the bank (a) offer her an overdraft and (b) make a commitment to charge no interest/fees on it over the next 5 months, or refund any interest or fees charged between now and the end of February?

Could she get an interest free credit card for purchases and do the supermakret shop on it for a couple of months and clear the £500 faster? Then make sure that she clears the credit card within the 5 months proposed?