bank error in favour

surferbear

Hi, not sure where to put this thread so here goes...

I'm with the Abbey and approx 8 months ago a cheque was paid into my account for about £350. I assumed it was a cheque from my employer for expenses which they pay at random dates in the month and I was owed roughly that amount. Life carried on as normal.....until 8 months later I received a letter from my branch informing me that an error was made and a customer had chased an unpaid cheque and the investigation led them to conclude that the money had ended up in my account. Also they had debited my account from the date of the letter of the £350!
I understand that they can reclaim the money but to just take it out without any communication with me beforehand is unbelievable! I was wondering if there is any official procedure they should have followed or what the best course of action now would be?

Regards

ShelfStacker_3

It wasn't your money, and if you weren't 100% sure of where it came from you shouldn't have spent it. They're entitled to take such funds back at any time, as they weren't yours to begin with.

jonesMUFCforever

The bank operated correctly.
It was not your money - thinking and knowing it was yours are two different things.
If you have spent it - tough.

Hemel_2

NO. The bank did not operate correctly!

They should have informed you of this first. What if you were going to buy a car this weekend and it didnt go through coz they took money out of your account without permission! This is not correct.

They should have contacted you by letter informing of the error and inviting you for a chat. If you can not prove the money belongs to you, they should ask you for an arrangement, eg £50 per month until repaid or agree a full reimbursement (sp).

Complain! :mad:

EDIT, did you not receive your expenses claim?

surferbear

Thanks for your replies. I can pay it back no problem, and I appreciate that mistakes happen. It was just the fact they didn't inform me before they took the money out that annoyed me, their mistake after all! Especially bearing in mind this was 8 months after the error occurred. I'm expecting a call from the branch manager on Monday.....wait and see I guess.:rolleyes:

Mikeyorks

surferbear wrote: »

their mistake after all!

Probably not. More likely an error by the customer on a paying in slip.

Hemel wrote:

They should have contacted you by letter informing of the error and inviting you for a chat. If you can not prove the money belongs to you, they should ask you for an arrangement, eg £50 per month until repaid or agree a full reimbursement (sp).

Can you point to that in the Banking Code ..... or is it just made up?

Millionaire

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Probably not. More likely an error by the customer on a paying in slip.




Can you point to that in the Banking Code ..... or is it just made up?

I was thinking the same thing. I don't think a Bank needs to inform you to withdraw funds from an account that are made in error before they can remove them.

I used to work in banking years ago and that was the case then for the bank I used to work for, not sure if any things changed since.

YorkshireBoy

Millionaire wrote: »

I don't think a Bank needs to inform you to withdraw funds from an account that are made in error before they can remove them.

Absolutely correct. A&L have this eventuality covered in their T&C's...

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/currentaccounts/ec03964.pdf
(condition 6.4)

Presumably other banks also have similar conditions.

Mikeyorks

Millionaire wrote: »

I don't think a Bank needs to inform you to withdraw funds from an account that are made in error before they can remove them.

Exactly right ... just as they didn't need permission to erroneously be party to depositing the funds in the first place!

Hemel_2

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Can you point to that in the Banking Code ..... or is it just made up?

From 9 years working in a branch...! Couldnt find anything in T&C's for this particular bank. But we would involve our HO / Fraud Team and this is the process for such bank errors we followed.

Edit : http://www.halifax.co.uk/HICA/pdf/halifaxtandc.pdf

Mikeyorks

Try condition 21.1 (5th Bullet) ..... which is a general catch all. It's also covered by the fact that a correction debit can be created by the original payee Bank after the error is traced .... so it can be debited under 21.1 (Bullet 2).

It's fairly standard procedure where someone has been the beneficiary of someone else's funds. It doesn't contravene the Banking Code (they did write) nor FOS guidelines.