Mystery payment

Newly_retired

If a mysterious payment is made into a current account which I do not recognise, what are my responsibilities, does any one know?

Ballard

I'm not entirely sure legally but I think that you have to advise your bank that you don't recognise it. Morally you certainly should return it. Someone somewhere will be expecting to receive the funds and it could quite clearly be very important to them.

Newly_retired

For all I know it could be from a legitimate source, though as yet us identified. More likely, somebody made a mistake by one digit when doing a transfer.
Is it up to the account holder to query it with the bank, or up to the bank to investigate when somebody complains that their payment has not reached its destination?
The account holder is not me, by the way.

jonesMUFCforever

How much are we talking about here?

A few quid? A few hundred -- more??

colsten

If they know it's not their money, they should ask the bank to take it out of their account. Keeping it could lead to undesirable consequences

http://www.money.co.uk/guides/can-you-keep-money-accidentally-paid-into-your-bank-account.htm

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/wrong-account-payments.htm

Newly_retired

The person has no intention of being dishonest and plans to see if the bank can throw any light on the transfer.
The amount is four figures but not vast.
The Ombudsman article was very useful, thank you.

jonesMUFCforever

Just make sure any refund to the rightful owner is done by the bank.
Tell him not to respond to any third party claim as it could be part of a scam.

Newly_retired

Good news. The bank say it is a final PPI refund. They have recalculated and paid out to various customers who had previously made a claim. We had thought this was all settled about four years ago.