Cheque paid into account.

deadeye

On Saturday, i checked my account to find that someone had paid a cheque into my account for over £2500. This was paid in in scotland and i live in southern England. Now i immediately contacted my bank as i am very wary as i had £4000 taken from my account last year. I informed them that i dont know why this was paid into my account. They informed me that this was probably an error and someone at the bank may have typed a digit wrong and they would contact the branch. The cheque has now cleared and the money is in my account. I have 2 questions i need answering.
1) If no-one claims the money, how long can i leave it until the money would be mine.
2) Can the bank now take the money back without my permission?

I'm in a dilemma as I don't want to just leave this money in my current account forever and a day waiting for someone to claim this. I may just open a savings account and put it in there so it will not be touched .

People say they'd love money to be deposited into their account, but this has just given me an headache.

Fiddlestick

deadeye wrote: »

2) Can the bank now take the money back without my permission?

I don't know about the first question but with regards to the second one they most certainally can. Why would they need your permission do to this?

It's not your money and you have already told the bank this...

I'm in a dilemma as I don't want to just leave this money in my current account forever and a day waiting for someone to claim this. I may just open a savings account and put it in there so it will not be touched

Someone will come along with a more definite answer but if I were you then I would go ahead and put that money into the savings account. The absolute last thing I would do would be to spend money that isn't mine and especially not after admitting as much to the bank.

xmaslolly76

Dont spend it put it in savings account like you said for all the stress it seems to be causing you you may as well earn a little money from it whilst you have it.

Mikeyorks

deadeye wrote: »

1) If no-one claims the money, how long can i leave it until the money would be mine.

Six (6) years.

2) Can the bank now take the money back without my permission?

Yes. Just as they didn't ask permission to put it in.

The likelihood is it's not the Bank that put the money in - but a depositor who wrote a paying in slip incorrectly. And will now be asking the Bank to trace the money .....!

rb10

deadeye wrote: »

They informed me that this was probably an error and someone at the bank may have typed a digit wrong and they would contact the branch.

Highly unlikely - there's a tiny chance of this happening by accident as bank account numbers are set up in such a way that this is near impossible.

What's stranger though is how the bank accepted it, when it (presumably) didn't have your name on it.

Depending on the bank, they may be able to tell you who the cheque is from, which may help.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I'm not convinced putting it into a savings account is a good idea, even if it's with the same bank.

When the error is realised and the amount is debited back out of your current account it might end up taking you overdrawn which will just complicate the situation.