HELP!! Money paid into account by mistake

Saunders888

Hi Guys,

I know this has been posted a few times but i feel my situation is a little different. 12 days ago i logged in to my online banking to find money (almost 3k) has been paid into my account. I am assuming this is a mistake as I cannot think of a reason this would be paid in.

I called the bank (santander) straight away as this may be somebody elses money and I know how devastated i'd be if i misplaced that amount of money! I advised the bank i think it may be a mistake and need a bit more info. They where not too helpful and said they can only see what i can see online and as the payment was a "Bank Giro Credit" adnd they are a the receiving account they cannot see who it came from.

My next step was to google the reference on the transaction. There is only 1 place in the UK with this name so I called them straight away. I explained the situation to them also and have since spoken to the manager and the owner. They have both advised the money did not come from their account and cant really help much further. the owner advised he would check if it was a payment he was expecting from somebody else and to give him 24 hours to go through everything. this was last monday 13/05!

I have tried to do everything i can and need to know how long I have to wait before I can ssume the money was meant for me as nobody is claiming it. I have tried to be a good person and find who paid the money but feel like this may even shoot me in the foot if this goes on for ages and i do spend some of the money.

Help!!

any advice is MUCH appreciated!!

S

matttye

I would say NEVER spend it. Usually these things have a way of coming back to bite you in the !!!.

MoneySaverLog

Just keep it in a separate account, one that pays you interest, until you're contacted by the bank to repay it back to the originator.

dr_adidas01

Saunders888 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I know this has been posted a few times but i feel my situation is a little different. 12 days ago i logged in to my online banking to find money (almost 3k) has been paid into my account. I am assuming this is a mistake as I cannot think of a reason this would be paid in.

I called the bank (santander) straight away as this may be somebody elses money and I know how devastated i'd be if i misplaced that amount of money! I advised the bank i think it may be a mistake and need a bit more info. They where not too helpful and said they can only see what i can see online and as the payment was a "Bank Giro Credit" adnd they are a the receiving account they cannot see who it came from.

My next step was to google the reference on the transaction. There is only 1 place in the UK with this name so I called them straight away. I explained the situation to them also and have since spoken to the manager and the owner. They have both advised the money did not come from their account and cant really help much further. the owner advised he would check if it was a payment he was expecting from somebody else and to give him 24 hours to go through everything. this was last monday 13/05!

I have tried to do everything i can and need to know how long I have to wait before I can ssume the money was meant for me as nobody is claiming it. I have tried to be a good person and find who paid the money but feel like this may even shoot me in the foot if this goes on for ages and i do spend some of the money.

Help!!

any advice is MUCH appreciated!!

S

Don't spend any of it, its not legally yours to spend!!

Should you so much as spend £0.01p of it then it can be classed as stealing. The best thing you can do is leave the money where it is and wait for the person whom mistakenly paid it into your account to claim it back once they realise there mistake.

What you can do is put it in a savings account and earn some interest off it which you can legally keep.

innovate

Write to Santander to state this is not your money, and that you wish them to remove it from your account.

That way, if it is a money-laundering scam, you can be reasonably sure you will not be automatically implicated in the scam.

Under no circumstance spend any of the money, because that's either stealing, or implicating you in a money-laundering scam.

grumbler

dr_adidas01 wrote: »

Should you so much as spend £0.01p of it then it can be classed as stealing.

Can you prove this?
It's like saying that using unsolicited goods sent to you is the same as shoplifting.

matttye

dr_adidas01 wrote: »

Don't spend any of it, its not legally yours to spend!!

Should you so much as spend £0.01p of it then it can be classed as stealing. The best thing you can do is leave the money where it is and wait for the person whom mistakenly paid it into your account to claim it back once they realise there mistake.

What you can do is put it in a savings account and earn some interest off it which you can legally keep.

innovate wrote: »

Write to Santander to state this is not your money, and that you wish them to remove it from your account.

That way, if it is a money-laundering scam, you can be reasonably sure you will not be automatically implicated in the scam.

Under no circumstance spend any of the money, because that's either stealing, or implicating you in a money-laundering scam.

For it to be theft you need to prove that the thief intended to permanently deprive the loser of their property.

That would be very difficult to prove in a case where the money turns up in someone's bank account randomly, without any input from the beneficiary.

The OP could just say he intended to give it back once the owner was found. That automatically makes it not theft.

Not saying I would recommend it.. just that it's not theft.

dr_adidas01

grumbler wrote: »

Can you prove this?
It's like saying that using unsolicited goods sent to you is the same as shoplifting.

Yes look online at those people who have been prosecuted for spending money that was accidentally sent to their account and they knew it wasn't there's.

marlewuk

Im sure the intended recipient will contact the sender in due course. The sender will contact their own bank to query why the credit didnt reach its destination - a trace will be put on the transaction.
Should eventually result in your bank being contacted by senders bank explaining error which will mean your bank will then ask if they can kindly take these funds back.
like other posters have mentioned - try earn some interest in the meantime, not much but better than nothing

xylophone

Put the matter in writing to your bank, obtain proof of posting and keep a copy of your letter.

grumbler

dr_adidas01 wrote: »

Yes look online at those people who have been prosecuted for spending money that was accidentally sent to their account and they knew it wasn't there's.

Prosecuted for spending or for theft?

Any link? Plenty of stories about people being unable to get money back, but nothing about prosecutions.

How one woman made a £26,000 mistake

It's not that I advocate spending. My suggestion is a saving account.