Money appeared in my account

sm1234

So, I opened up my online banking to discover £1000 paid in, in cash, to one of my accounts.

I don't remember paying it in and nobody has told me that they paid it in (However it was my birthday the day before it was paid in - on the whole, I unfortunately don't have that sort of friend though).

Of course I don't want to be £1000 better off if someone else is £1000 down, and want to do the right thing. However, I'm not too happy with my bank at the moment and I would like to charge the bank an administration fee of £25, plus late fees/interest if they don't pay the admin fee promptly (think of it as a sort of reciprocal arrangement!).

I moved the money from the non-interest paying account into which it arrived, to a 'high' interest account, whilst I work out how to proceed, and I'm just slightly concerned that I may be stretching the legal boundaries here (the acc in question is now empty and, as the acc cannot be overdrawn, they cannot simply take the money back out). Is it OK for me to do this, on the assumption that this is a birthday present whilst I investigate the best way to proceed? Or could I be accused of theft?

Any thoughts on how/if I should press the bank for charges? And if there is any way of finding out whether the bank or the acc holder is to blame (it's only the bank that i would want to charge).

Just to re-iterate, I have no desire to deprive the rightful owner of their cash.

sm1234

Farmerbob

And what do you base the £25 pound fee on, is a a reasonable and accurate charge based on costs incurred by you (You would use this argument if they charged you). If someone had paid the cash into your account in error it will be difficult for them to get it back without your agreement as there has been a few similar posts, but they may depending on where the payment came from

I think you should own up and be a decent person and not play silly games.

Valli

If it was done by transfer and somone input the wrong details then it's the fault of the person who set up the transfer.

My understanding of this is that the bank must contact you and request the money. The bank won't reimburse the person who set up the transfer unless they get the money back off you. Personally I would be waiting for them to contact me and not spending my time and money trying to reunite this money with its rightful owner. I wouldn't want to keep the money but I can see this as not being straightforward.

YorkshireBoy

sm1234 wrote: »

(the acc in question is now empty and, as the acc cannot be overdrawn, they cannot simply take the money back out).

I wouldn't be too sure about that.

If it's a keying error by a cashier they'll simply remove the money and create an overdraft situation (and tell you about it later). Check your account T&Cs for what happens in these circumstances.

I wouldn't be playing games here because it's highly likely to cost you money and damage your credit rating.

Cat2011

We had someone recently start at work. On payday his pay was put into someone else's bank account as our pay company noted his bank details down wrong. He then spent the entire day completely freaking out as he was in desperate need of that money due to having just moved house and his car breaking down.

Stop !!!!ing around. Ring your bank, find out where the money came from. If it was a generous friend - great. If it was an accidental transfer give it back.

Sicksorry

For the sake of your Conscience put the money back over into the account it was paid into, Phone the bank and see what the crack is. You might luck out and find out It's a present or such. If not, then it's nothing lost nor gained.

vax2002

Someone will be on to it now you have blabbed on a forum...

sm1234

I will call my branch tomorrow morning as soon as they open, of course that's the right thing to do! I hope they can trace whoever paid in the cash and get it to them (Valli - keeping mum is not an option for me, the pleasure I would get out of the money, is less than the pain I would feel if it were my money that had gone). The money is in a linked acc and can be transfered at a click of the mouse (but in case it takes months to sort, i might as well at least leave it somewhere worthwhile!).

If it's a bank error, I am a lot less inclined to give up my time and energy to sort the problem, out of the goodness of my own heart. I for one feel the banks have been taking the p*** out of us in recent years.

(vax - i dont know how anyone "would be onto it now" without my real name, location or the name of my bank? however, as i've said, i have no intent to disappear with the cash anyway)

DUTR

sm1234 wrote: »

So, I opened up my online banking to discover £1000 paid in, in cash, to one of my accounts.

I don't remember paying it in and nobody has told me that they paid it in (However it was my birthday the day before it was paid in - on the whole, I unfortunately don't have that sort of friend though).

Of course I don't want to be £1000 better off if someone else is £1000 down, and want to do the right thing. However, I'm not too happy with my bank at the moment and I would like to charge the bank an administration fee of £25, plus late fees/interest if they don't pay the admin fee promptly (think of it as a sort of reciprocal arrangement!).

I moved the money from the non-interest paying account into which it arrived, to a 'high' interest account, whilst I work out how to proceed, and I'm just slightly concerned that I may be stretching the legal boundaries here (the acc in question is now empty and, as the acc cannot be overdrawn, they cannot simply take the money back out). Is it OK for me to do this, on the assumption that this is a birthday present whilst I investigate the best way to proceed? Or could I be accused of theft?

Any thoughts on how/if I should press the bank for charges? And if there is any way of finding out whether the bank or the acc holder is to blame (it's only the bank that i would want to charge).

Just to re-iterate, I have no desire to deprive the rightful owner of their cash.

sm1234

I do most my banking online and via transfers, I cannot see how money has appeared in your account with no note of who the sender is .

Professional

Restitution - Unjust enrichment: A particular type of causative event in which one party is unjustly enriched at the expense of another, and an obligation to make restitution arises, regardless of liability for wrongdoing.

Money deposited accidentally into your account is still the property of the person to whom it rightfully belongs. If you didn't return the money then you could be sued for it. It doesn't matter if it belongs to the bank or it belongs to a person or who's to blame. Your unlikely to succeed in charging the bank with any charges unless you could prove significant damage or loss or consideration on your behalf. You can't be prosecuted for theft as you didn't take the money and who could prove that you kept in the knowledge that it wasn't yours.

Money has gone missing before and never been tracked. The question for an ordinary person is - own up or turn a blind eye? I think you're character and honesty has answered this question. Personally I would have let the bank do their job themselves and if they didn't then hard luck but I'm probably not as nice as you.

mrmat

A few weeks ago, the sum of just over £1450 appeared in my bank account. I started to freak out - I think I'm the opposite to most people! I'm self-employed, but I knew immediately this was for an amount that I didn't recognise, and from a company I hadn't even heard of.

I was worried because I didn't want to be lulled into a false sense of security, I didn't want to go down the route of "it's someone else's fault, I shouldn't be made to pay if I spent it and they tried to reclaim it, surely I could claim I never even noticed" etc., because this mindset would be *bound* to land me in trouble.

I got online straight away and Googled the name of the company this transaction came from, phoned them up, and tried in vain to speak to someone in their finance or accounting department. I then called my bank to explain I didn't recognise the deposit; this was met with a semi-sarcastic, semi-amused response by the man on the end of the 'phone which I greeted with utter disdain - but anyway the bank responded in writing saying they couldn't trace the payment further than what they had already told me, the originating company and their bank details.

I didn't want to return it without at least making contact with someone first, after all then I'd have no proof I returned it!

So I set the money aside into my savings account so I knew I couldn't touch it, and I waited. I read somewhere that this money wasn't safe in my account until after 6 years - no idea where I read it but hey, and because I'm in and out of my overdraft, if this were to be taken out of the account without forewarning, it would plunge me into a financial situation. (Yes - my cashflow is that sensitive!)

Sure enough, three weeks later I had an email from the father of someone I had done business with previously, in my capacity as a self-employed person. It was of an apologetic tone, saying that he had made a very silly error and given *his* client my bank details instead of those of someone else - by accident.

He said that the company the money came from didn't have the power to "reclaim" this money (they had spoken to their bank already) and would I transfer it back?

Well of course, it would have been terribly embarrassing had I spent it! Much more so than if the upshot was that I had to battle with my bank.

In my mind, I had already been through the cycle of "it's their fault, I've no obligation, I have tried my best to trace it", etc.

LET THIS BE A LESSON!

In 95% of cases, errors like this are related to someone you may have had a connection with.

So yes - you can tell yourself a million times that it's not your fault the money appeared, but if you then go and spend it on the basis that it was from a third party you didn't know - you could seriously embarrass yourself in front of a personal contact!

Ok, I know this is unlikely to be the case with the original poster's story, but I thought I'd post my cautionary tale here anyways!