Unauthorised transaction by Nationwide

Paulhed

Please could you tell me if my bank (Nationwide) are allowed to take a payment without my authorisation? Let me provide the details:
I had a credit of £240 that my mother-in-law transferred online into my account. A few days later the credit showed correctly but the next day another £240 was credited again (Mother-in-Law only charged once). I have to admit I did nothing but just waited to see if Nationwide would contact me about their error. They didn't. However, 3 days later I saw there was an entry for an 'internal transfer' of £240.
So, what I really want to know is are they allowed to do an 'internal transfer' without contacting me and without my authorisation. I know that the £240 wasn't actually mine anyway but I thought they still had to request my authorisation to take it back. Is this correct?

Horseunderwater

In this case I'd say yes. Not sure that I get what the problem is here. They made an error and traced it to your account and removed that error. You still have the 1st £240 credit I assume?

Gromitt

I've only had this happen once with Nationwide, but it didn't show up as "internal transfer", it showed up as "Adjustment". Either way, the bank made an error and fixed the error, they didn't have to ask for your permission first. This is probably in your T&Cs.

If another person transferred £240 into your account by accident then the bank has to contact you before they are allowed to withdraw the cash.