Rights when the bank make an error

HobgoblinBT

The bank that I used to work for electronically reconciled the images of pay in slips against the data entries.  Any errors would be picked up on a morning report which should be acted upon usually the same day.  

As to what to do, you should pay it back.  

If not, how have you entered it in your accounts for tax purposes?  

If the removal of the free loan over the last few months will cause you financial difficulty, speak to the bank, explain that it will cause you financial difficulty and can they consider a good will gesture (eg £100) and a repayment plan of say £100 per month over 4 month.  

pelirocco

Jules_1962 said:

I am self employed and use a paying in book to pay in cash and cheques to the bank.  They have just discovered that in September 2019 the teller in the bank completed my pay in and then paid the next customers deposit into my account to the value of £500.  The bank called today to tell me of this error and that they are taking the money out of my account today.  In all honesty, at the time of the error, my account was really healthy and i didn't notice the extra money and the other party also only notice the error today too.
I understand that its not my money and its right and proper that it gets paid back, but do the bank have the right to take it all back in one lump (my account is not so healthy now)  also as this was their error is it worth complaining and what would the benefits be?
Makes me question why they take the little slip from the paying in book if they are not going to check them and reconcile against them.

Thanks

When I've paid money in they run the paying in slip plus cheques through a scanner which picks up my account details plus matches  the details  on the cheque being paid in .It picks up if the amounts don't tally  to total   on the slip plus checks the payee name  matches the account name its being paid into .
Not sure how they managed this ??

Ballard

The bank have made an error but customers also have an obligation to reconcile their accounts so in my view the responsibility for this issue is shared between the three parties. 

This does not mean that the bank can simply debit your account in one hit. Speak to them and offer what is currently affordable to you per  month. Complain that this is inconvenient and I’d be a little surprised if they didn’t write part of the amount off. 

jonesMUFCforever

All of you who disagree with my points in this thread - would you be happy not to receive monies that you paid in, if an error such as this thread happened to you?
I bet not one of you would - I wouldn't either.

Matt8888

jonesMUFCforever said:

Jules_1962 said:

I am self employed and use a paying in book to pay in cash and cheques to the bank.  They have just discovered that in September 2019 the teller in the bank completed my pay in and then paid the next customers deposit into my account to the value of £500.  The bank called today to tell me of this error and that they are taking the money out of my account today.  In all honesty, at the time of the error, my account was really healthy and i didn't notice the extra money and the other party also only notice the error today too.
I understand that its not my money and its right and proper that it gets paid back, but do the bank have the right to take it all back in one lump (my account is not so healthy now)  also as this was their error is it worth complaining and what would the benefits be?
Makes me question why they take the little slip from the paying in book if they are not going to check them and reconcile against them.

Thanks

So when you paid in your £500 credit if the bank made an error and paid into the previous served customer (after all your account was healthy and you would not have noticed) would you be prepared to be paid back in drips and drabs when the error was found?
Just asking?

Obviously the OP will not be repaying the money directly to the other person. The bank will have done that already. This is about repaying the money to the bank. And since it is clearly the bank's error, it is not at all unreasonable to ask to pay in back in instalments.
"Just saying"

born_again

jonesMUFCforever said:

All of you who disagree with my points in this thread - would you be happy not to receive monies that you paid in, if an error such as this thread happened to you?
I bet not one of you would - I wouldn't either.

The other persons account (who clearly was someone who did not check very often) as well. Will have had the full amount refunded.
The Op could ask to be allowed to pay via instalments, (bank would use internal acc to reconcile the difference) but the bank could refuse. It is up to them. We would only do it in extreme circumstances.
I would guess that at the time of the error it was a manual input and cashier simply forgot to enter the account number of the new customer (might have been chatting too much and got distracted)

masonic

I suggest some people may have cracked open the Christmas Monopoly a little too early this year and have been unduly influenced by the "Bank error in your favour, collect £200" community chest card. In the real world, people should not expect to keep money that isn't theirs.

jonesMUFCforever

masonic - well said.

Thrugelmir

Be interesting to know how the cashier managed to deposit the funds into the wrong account. Wonder if it was the bank that rung the OP. 

jonesMUFCforever

Thrugelmir said:

Be interesting to know how the cashier managed to deposit the funds into the wrong account. Wonder if it was the bank that rung the OP. 

Fairly straightforward - cashier did not notice that he/she was in wrong customer profile, when the credit was run through the telling system it should flag up as wrong customer but there is a cashier's override which might have been pressed if not paying attention or talking too much or distracted?