Difficulty repaying bank error in my favour

Gravelrash_2

innovate wrote: »

Calm down

I'm not exactly angry. More bemused and slightly insulted

innovate wrote: »

Many longer-standing members are automatically cautious when a newbie comes along with a post that leaves room for questions. More often than not these newbies turned out to be trolls.

In which case, wouldn't they be better off ignoring the threads that they dislike?

Your sentiment is, however, appreciated

stclair

Gravelrash wrote: »

Hi Everyone.

On 24th December I received a letter from another bank stating that they had mistakenly paid £450 into my bank account. I have checked my account, and sure enough, the deposit was made at the beginning of December.

Unfortunately this was the first I knew of the additional funds. I had checked my bank balance in the middle of December, and the balance I found seemed perfectly reasonable to me, and so my Christmas spending was based on those available funds.

I realise the money isn't mine. The trouble is, having spent it unknowingly, it is going to be difficult to repay. I have basically overspent this Christmas by another £450 more than I would have otherwise.

I have composed a letter to the bank explaining the situation, but haven't yet posted it. Is there anything else I should be doing?, and is it reasonable of me to ask for a low level of repayments in order to avoid financial hardship in repaying the banks error?

Many thanks in advance

So have you now made a decision what you believe would be the best way forward to resolve the matter since you started this thread?

Gravelrash_2

stclair wrote: »

So have you now made a decision what you believe would be the best way forward?

I obviously intend to repay the money. Apart from being morally wrong, not doing so would surely constitute theft, and be a criminal offence?
Anyway, I really think it cannot do any harm to make an offer to pay by instalments. I have added an offer to pay £50 per month (as suggested first by Sharpy2010 - thank you) to my original letter, but have still not yet posted it.
I am still debating whether or not to call the bank over the telephone first. I do prefer to have arrangements agreed and approved in writing, but I can see that it might not hurt to have agreed the rate of repayment over the telephone in order to avoid unnecessary correspondence.
I will update the thread when I have a response from the bank.

stclair

Gravelrash wrote: »

I obviously intend to repay the money. Apart from being morally wrong, not doing so would surely constitute theft, and be a criminal offence?
Anyway, I really think it cannot do any harm to make an offer to pay by instalments. I have added an offer to pay £50 per month (as suggested first by Sharpy2010 - thank you) to my original letter, but have still not yet posted it.
I am still debating whether or not to call the bank over the telephone first. I do prefer to have arrangements agreed and approved in writing, but I can see that it might not hurt to have agreed the rate of repayment over the telephone in order to avoid unnecessary correspondence.
I will update the thread when I have a response from the bank.

I would make sure its all done in writing. I'm sure the bank would appreciate your honesty in the matter. I can imagine the bank will refund the customer in full then you will have to pay the bank back. The bottom line is you can't give the bank what you haven't got!

Gromitt

Gravelrash wrote: »

I am still debating whether or not to call the bank over the telephone first. I do prefer to have arrangements agreed and approved in writing, but I can see that it might not hurt to have agreed the rate of repayment over the telephone in order to avoid unnecessary correspondence.

Problem is you could then get 2 different answers depending on who you speak to. Do it all in writing and then you have it in writing what is agreed. Despite what you think, people have lost thousands through transferring funds to the wrong account and not being able to reclaim the funds (its not a criminal offence to refuse), so I'm the bank will be more than happy with you offering to pay back in instalments. It'll basically be an interest-free loan for you.

NorthernOne

Gravelrash wrote: »

Jeez, the trolls in here are really hungry. When did it become acceptable to openly accuse someone of lying without any particular evidence? Either accept my question at face value (which just so happens to be the truth), or kindly go away and troll someone else's thread.

I will bite...

Not at all. There are many very helpful people on this forum and will offer their advise based upon face value what the OP says however some people will post deliberately misleading posts simply to troll and criticise other members.

My own posts were asking you to be more specific and at no time have I suggested you were lying. All you have done to me and those people who have questioned your post is to disregard and insult them which further indicates to me that your initial post is possibly untrue.

I hope this clarifies.

Gravelrash_2

Gromitt wrote: »

Problem is you could then get 2 different answers depending on who you speak to. Do it all in writing and then you have it in writing what is agreed.

OK, thanks for that. It kind of confirms my own gut feeling, so I will get the letter posted tomorrow, and will not bother with the phone call.

Gravelrash_2

OK, after a bit more Googling and reading I found this:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/87/87-banking-complaints.htm
I thought it might be a useful reference for anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation.

JuicyJesus

The FOS case studies are not precedent and shouldn't be treated as such, they take every case on its merits. What you want is their technical guidance on complaints regarding misapplied credits, which provides general approaches to such things: http://www.financialombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/wrong-account-payments.htm

Mozette

Gravelrash wrote: »

I am, quite frankly, a bit surprised by the number of slightly rude and even accusatory (Mozette) posts I have received in response to my question, simply because I don't really know how much money I have in my bank account at any given time. I am not proud of it, but I am clearly not alone in this - take a look at telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/9640179/One-in-three-leaves-bank-statements-unopened.html

Anyway, those responses are still a surprising but useful preparation for the level of disbelief I am likely to encounter when explaining my circumstances to the staff at the bank. I think this is probably a good reason to make sure I make all communications in writing rather than over the phone.

Thank you to everyone, even the rude and accusatory contributors, for taking the time to respond.

Well I understand that if you have plenty of money - and some people do - that you might not check your statements and might not notice an extra £450. But you say you don't have enough money to pay it back at once so I'm guessing that if you had not been paid this amount in error, you would have been overdrawn by this amount if you can't afford to pay it back in one. I simply find it staggering that anyone on this site would be so dilatory with their finances.
As I said, it doesn't add up. But it's an internet forum, if you don't like what is said then just ignore it and get on with your day.