Received my salary twice?

LaurenC

I usually get paid on 25th of every month. This month, I was paid on 23rd June due to 25th falling on a Sunday. However, I was also paid again yesterday (Monday 26th) for the same/usual amount.

I am under no illusion that I will get to keep the extra money, so I reported it to my payroll department who have now investigated and confirmed they did not pay me twice. I rang my bank and they have told me that it wasn't their error either.

What should I do? I don't want to go back to either party in case they just take the money and the other then comes asking for it at a later date. I have moved it out of my main account and into my online saver (linked to same account) so should I just leave it there until I hear something? Thanks in advance for the advice!

xylophone

I have moved it out of my main account and into my online saver (linked to same account)

And if the amount is suddenly removed from your current account, will you go overdrawn?

LaurenC

xylophone wrote: »

And if the amount is suddenly removed from your current account, will you go overdrawn?

I check my balance every morning so I guess I would just move the money back again! Can they just take money from my account though with no warning?

Brewer20

As above, what if somebody wants it back and you go overdrawn?

You've done the right thing though in contacting the relevent people to report it.

It might be an unexpected bonus for you this month.

I once got paid an extra weeks pay, it was supposedly unpaid leave, reported it to the relevent people and waited for it to be taken back, it never did get taken back. I got fed up of telling them so after 2 months (I got paid weekly) I spent it, heard no more. But you always think where did this money come from and how are they accounting for the money going missing?

benten69

Keep it in a savings account for 12 months, if no-one comes for it by then, consider it yours and do what you want. It's what I would do. Doubt you'll ever hear anything if no-one asks for it within the 12 months.

Oh, and they cannot just take the money back. Reversing a BACS transaction is not straight forward, its not like a direct debit. However if they ask for it and have proof that you were paid in error then you are legally obliged to return it. Until that day comes, don't worry about it, just let it sit.

agrinnall

There are (I think, unless anyone else can think of another) 4 reasons why this might happen:


1) Your employer's payroll has indeed paid you twice
2) Your bank has applied the payment twice
3) Your employer's bank duplicated the payment
4) BACS duplicated the payment (assuming it was a BACS Direct Credit rather than a Faster Payment).


Of those I'd say that number 1 is the most likely, as the others would probably affect more transactions than just yours and we might have heard about it in other threads.



If it was me I would put the money back into the original account as I doubt if there is any obligation to tell you it's going to be taken back, and keep it there for a while - I'd suggest at least until next pay day, and ideally for 6 months (after which they would need to inform you that it needed to be returned).

teddysmum

If the same has happened to a work colleague, then this suggests it's an employer or employer's bank error and someone will soon notice and take action.


If it's just your salary affected , I would assume it was your bank's error.

eskbanker

agrinnall wrote: »

If it was me I would put the money back into the original account as I doubt if there is any obligation to tell you it's going to be taken back, and keep it there for a while - I'd suggest at least until next pay day, and ideally for 6 months (after which they would need to inform you that it needed to be returned).

My understanding is that there is a very limited window within which a BACS payment can be reversed by the sender (either same day or within 24 hours?) but once that's passed then how would it actually be taken back?

There is the misdirected payment mechanism that a sender can invoke but this involves correspondence with the recipient (via both banks) to verify that they're not challenging the 'reversal', so I'd have thought that once 24 hours have passed the funds can't just be taken without notification?

Happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better if this isn't the case though!

There are obviously other alternatives in the context of the employer/employee relationship though, e.g. "we paid you twice, let's consider the second one to be next month's pay"....

IanManc

LaurenC wrote: »

I usually get paid on 25th of every month. This month, I was paid on 23rd June due to 25th falling on a Sunday. However, I was also paid again yesterday (Monday 26th) for the same/usual amount.

I am under no illusion that I will get to keep the extra money, so I reported it to my payroll department who have now investigated and confirmed they did not pay me twice. I rang my bank and they have told me that it wasn't their error either.

What should I do? I don't want to go back to either party in case they just take the money and the other then comes asking for it at a later date. I have moved it out of my main account and into my online saver (linked to same account) so should I just leave it there until I hear something? Thanks in advance for the advice!

You know that the extra money is not yours so you should not have moved it. By moving it you could be said to have "appropriated" it in legal terms, which means you have dealt with it as if you were beneficial owner of it, which you are not.

You did the right thing by informing your bank and your employer's payroll department. Now you should move the money back to the main account it arrived in and leave it there. You ought to do this straight away.

Kim_13

I think the OP is absolutely right to put the money in another account for now, where she can't then accidentally spend it. Too often we have posters who are overpaid and who struggle to find the money when the employer wants it back. The OP is also doing the sensible thing in checking the balance daily in case anything else should happen - all too rare.

If it turned out to be a bank error, don't they have to give 7/14 days notice before debiting the funds from the account? Plenty of time for the OP to do an internal transfer to put the funds back.

RG2015

xylophone wrote: »

And if the amount is suddenly removed from your current account, will you go overdrawn?

I do not have anything more to add for the OP but this post by xylophone interests me.

I thought that nobody could remove money from your bank account other than by direct debit or continuous payment authority. I assume that the OP's employer does not have this authority so I do not believe that the over-payment can just be removed. I am however quite happy for someone to correct me.

I do recall my son being overpaid by his employer last year and he had to make the repayment himself.