Bank took money out of account due to ‘error’

Wheres_My_Cashback

Quite astonishing how many bank errors with paying out too much money, scamming, closing accounts, freezing accounts, depositing thousands in wrongs accounts all within the past 3 months. This must be the tip of the iceberg with the few thousand that read these forums.
Per ratio there must be millions of these errors everyday of the week.
Then again...............

jonesMUFCforever

Wheres_My_Cashback said:

Quite astonishing how many bank errors with paying out too much money, scamming, closing accounts, freezing accounts, depositing thousands in wrongs accounts all within the past 3 months. This must be the tip of the iceberg with the few thousand that read these forums.
Per ratio there must be millions of these errors everyday of the week.
Then again...............

Turn this around - thinking of just myself - I have had a bank account for more than 30 years - I can recall no transactions at a till where I have been shortchanged and I can only recall once where a Cashpoint did not dispense cash to me. Perhaps I have been lucky?

jonesMUFCforever

realised said:

No my dad did not notice he had more than he had asked for. He is of the generation that does everything in cash and he picked up my grandparents pension and benefits at the same time so everything got mixed into one. This is something he regularly does so If he did get the extra £200, it is plausible that he assumed he already had the money in his pocket from before. 

He also has mental health issues so gets confused easily and trusted the bank to always do the right thing and so didn’t check at the time. When I asked him if he could think back he said it seemed to him that the lady counted everything properly but now he can’t be 100% certain.

I am going to write back to the bank and ask for CCTV. If they are sure it was his transaction, they must have proof. I’m a little miffed that the bank just decided to take the money out of his account without discussion though. It was their fault at the end of the day and He is getting very anxious about this whole thing I hope we can iron it all out soon. 

1. Sorry but this does not ring true. When he got home and dispersed the benefit and pension money he would have known if he had £200 over - as you say people of his generation who deal in cash know how much is in their purse or wallet.
2. You now mention mental health - are the bank aware of this>? They have processes in place to help. It is now too late for both of you to apply for third party mandate on his account to help him - you need to speak to him about getting legal powers to deal with his finances.
3 They will not deal with you. You are not their customer - your father is - he would have to start a complaint. The bank's CCTV is their private property and would not normally hand it over to your father unless produces a court order. Whether in practise when they re-open for customer interviews they show you what they have to put your mind at rest is another matter. Of course at this stage I am only guessing that CCTV is the reason why they have taken the money back. The cashier might have remembered putting £700 in the envelope, they could have been on holiday or off sick or caring for somebody which might be the reason for the delay in them writing the letter to your dad.

Going forward -a) ask your father to ask the bank for a full explanation of what happened. b)Ask your father to register with the bank that he has signs of mental health issues even if at this stage it is just forgetfulness. c) Perhaps arrange for someone else to collect your grandparents pension and benefits or arrange for them to go direct into a bank account d) Have a talk with Dad to see if he agrees that he may help with finances and find the best way forward eg PoA or Attorneyship etc.

Good luck - keep us informed of how he gets on.

Old_Lifer

When I was young,   I did have one occasion when I cashed a cheque at the bank counter and was overpaid.   I had gone to the bank in my lunch-hour to cash  a cheque  and as usual had written the split of notes required on the back.    While the cashier was counting the notes  I was talking to a friend who was just behind me .   I picked-up the notes stuffed them in my pocket and left.    On returning to the Office  I took out the notes to put into my wallet and  noticed I had been overpaid.  The cashier had mis-read  the  split  of notes required  and had given me too much     .Instead of  20   10s notes ,  he had given me  £20  in  10s notes (pre-decimal   one pound = 20 shillings , so he had given me twice the required number of 10s notes).   I immediately returned to the bank and returned the overpayment.       Bank cashiers  seemed to  scribble on the backs of cheques,  presumably the split of notes given,   so I assumed it would have been picked-up at the end of day reconciliation.     By going back straight away, it presumably would have saved them a lot of time spent looking for the error.

sheramber

£200 is a lot of money to not know you had in your pocket.
 I have never had money handed over t by a teller  that was not counted out in front of me. Whether th customer pays  attention is another matter.

tehone

It happened to me once, cashier put the money into an envelope, and I sealed it and took it home. I got a phone call at the end of the day, saying the daily bank rec had identified I had been given too much money, so they were going to deduct the extra £200 (or whatever it was). I checked the envelope whilst on the phone. The only thing I negotiated, was that was it wasn't my mistake, they wouldn't make the adjustment to my account until the next day, so I could go back into the branch to pay the extra money back in.

So it does happen, but they would have discover the error immediately.

paul235

What good is a receipt if the bank can dispute the amount of cash paid in or withdrawn?

jonesMUFCforever

paul235 said:

What good is a receipt if the bank can dispute the amount of cash paid in or withdrawn?

I agree 100% with you as long as it works both ways.So if you had paid in £700 but it appeared as £500 with a receipt for £500 and you had not noticed do you think the bank should give you the £200?
According to your argument they do not.
What you seem to forget in circumstances like this that we are human and from time to time they make genuine mistakes.