Bank error in my favour? What's going on?

carsonsmummy

Whenever I have an issue, this is the first website I come to so I'm hoping that I can get my sister some advice.

She had a payment of £700.00 made to her credit card, but had no idea where that payment has come from. She called Capital One who confirmed the payment was received but there is no transaction ID.

Not particularly assured by this, she then emailed Capital One for more information as to where it has come from so she can query the other party - be it bank, person etc. She provided the date, exact time according to her online transactions list, and the amount hat was credited.

Her response was simply this:

"Thank you for your message

I can confirm that the payment of £700 was credited to your account on the 16 May 2013.

Assuring you of our best services at all times.

If you have any other queries, please send us a further secure message."

What is her position with this? How is she supposed to query the other party that has paid into her account?
Can it still be reversed even though she has queried it twice - verbally and written?

My sister is very close to her wedding date so this extra credit will come in handy. I must stress that it is impossible that this was gifted to her by someone she knows - no-one has her account details, apart from herself and her fiance (who is just as dumbfounded as she is by this!)

Your advice/help is much appreciated.

MPH80

Simple answer - it could be a mistake ... and it's not her money to keep.

She should keep hold of it somewhere safe and expect to be asked for it back or reversed out.

Give it a decent amount of time (say a year or more) and she should be ok.

Either that - or find out who put it there.

antrobus

carsonsmummy wrote: »

....How is she supposed to query the other party that has paid into her account?

She can't. Even if Capital One could identify who it was, the Data Protection Act would prevent them from telling her.

carsonsmummy wrote: »

....Can it still be reversed even though she has queried it twice - verbally and written?

You sister should proceed with life on the basis that it can be reversed.

flashnazia

carsonsmummy wrote: »

My sister is very close to her wedding date so this extra credit will come in handy.

The 'extra credit' may well come in handy but it is not hers to keep.

It's likely somebody thought they were paying a bill and used the wrong details so that your sister was credited by mistake.

Why do people thinks it's ok to keep money that is not theirs?

Sensory

Your sister should contact Capital One again and and tell them that the payment was made in error, and that it should be reversed. They will take it from there; she doesn't need to take take it upon herself to investigate.

I had £1,800 paid onto my credit card out of nowhere, tipping my balance heavily into credit. I phoned my card issuer to inform them, and several months later the same amount was taken from the card.

Hominu

carsonsmummy wrote: »

She had a payment of £700.00 made to her credit card, but had no idea where that payment has come from. She called Capital One who confirmed the payment was received but there is no transaction ID.

Whats the limit on the credit card? If its decent, then it may be worthwhile withdrawing the £700 to a savings account and leaving £700 head room just in case the transaction is reversed (in which case you can pay it off using the savings), or if its not claimed after a year, spend the savings including interest. She has made her legal obligations by questioning the payment.

I would expect it most likely to be claimed, but I wouldn't like it sitting on my CC account. I remember a discussion with a CC provider that clearly stated "Consumer protection is only valid for purchases which are taken on credit, so if your credit card is in credit, please ask for a refund or ensure the amount you spend on your next transaction is higher than the in-credit balance.". I'm not sure how much truth is in that, but I've always abided by it since.

Tirian

This sort of thing can happen more easily than banks and credit card companies like to pretend.

Years back, I made a credit card payment to pay for a conference in the US but entered the numbers incorrectly with the result that my card was not billed for the payment. I contacted the bank and they said that if I'd entered the card number incorrectly the payment would fail because there was a checksum system to make sure that incorrect numbers wouldn't be processed.

However when I contacted the conference organisers, they confirmed that they had received payment. I contacted the bank again, who basically shrugged and told me there wasn't anything they could do about it and they had no way to find out where the money had come from. And somebody somewhere presumably found a few hundred dollars mysteriously appear on their statement.

Long story short - someone has probably entered some numbers incorrectly somewhere. Possibly another cardholder, but possibly the credit card provider themself. The money might be "handy" to your sister, but she can't know the circumstances of the real owner of the money, who could be relying on it for something vital.

Inform the credit card company, and keep it aside. She could always put it in an ISA in the meantime - that's the only way to actually make some honest money out of the situation.

pqrdef

antrobus wrote: »

She can't. Even if Capital One could identify who it was, the Data Protection Act would prevent them from telling her.

I have a lot of debit card refunds on my bank statements and they all have the name of the sender. Otherwise it would be silly - I'd have no way of knowing who's paid me and who hasn't.

The sending account name and payment reference should always be supplied to the recipient.

Make a formal complaint and point out that you have to have the sender's name or you don't know whether the money is yours or not.

There was another thread recently where somebody received an unlabelled payment that happened to look like one he was expecting. So naturally he spent the money. Then the bank said it was an error and took it back.

agrinnall

pqrdef wrote: »

I have a lot of debit card refunds on my bank statements and they all have the name of the sender. Otherwise it would be silly - I'd have no way of knowing who's paid me and who hasn't.

The sending account name and payment reference should always be supplied to the recipient.

Make a formal complaint and point out that you have to have the sender's name or you don't know whether the money is yours or not.

I doubt if the argument will wash for a payment to a credit card as the account is not owned by the CC holder, it's owned by the CC issuer, with payments reallocated by the issuer to the holder's card account.

I'd agree with the posters saying to tell the CC issuer to reverse the payment - the OP's sister knows she didn't make the payment, so it doesn't really matter to her who did make it. Taking the money off the card or even leaving it there could lead to all sorts of confusion later down the line, much better to just get it sorted out now.

Gromitt

Problem is, asking them reverse the payment could still take months unless they are willing to transfer the sum to a holding account first, and most are unlikely to do that and prefer to leave it in your account.

So I'd say to remove the money from the account and put it somewhere safe, if the account is debited in the future will a figure out of the same amount, simply transfer it back. Since its a credit card rather than a debit card, you will not get any charges for waiting until that time and it'll save confusion now, as you can move the funds now.

pqrdef

agrinnall wrote: »

I doubt if the argument will wash for a payment to a credit card as the account is not owned by the CC holder, it's owned by the CC issuer, with payments reallocated by the issuer to the holder's card account.

But suppose I use my CC for betting, and I make withdrawals from 10 bookies, via refunds to the card, and all 10 websites show a withdrawal, but only 9 payments show up on the card account. I need to know who to chase.

And how do I know one of the 9 payments I've got isn't a mistake?