Extra money in the bank

[Royal Flush]

If you find money in your bank account that has been credited to you in error how long do they bank have to realise before you can keep it?

[Chipleader]

As long as it takes u to spend it?

[Longy]

If you find money in your bank account that has been credited to you in error how long do they bank have to realise before you can keep it?

Its obv the stakes rolling in for your bb7 tourney. I would opt for a Happy meal, with the monies.

[Royal Flush]

nah its not me i would just spunk it and if they came to collect would pay up obv, its a skint friend obviously they would love the 400 quid but not if they bank is going to come chassing after them in a few weeks!

[Graham C]

Best not spend it, they do notice eventually.  Someone will be missing £400 somewhere and they'll trace it all back.

[Chipleader]

put it on black if it wins its a free £400 if it loses deny it

[action man]

lend them £400 you tight sod.

[Blatch]

It depends who it has come from.

As a standard rule if any money is paid to you which is not rightfully yours and you have spent it then you have to agree to pay it back, however the terms are up to you.

East Sussex County Council paid me one months salary after leaving years ago.  I spent it and agreed to pay back £10 per month for numerous years, im still paying it back :-)

[kinboshi]

The answer is that it depends.  The law is actually fairly vague in this area. 

It usually boils down to the a number of points such as:

1.  Did you know the money was incorrectly paid into your account or not?
2.  Did you make the efforts to establish where it was from and was it rightly yours?
3.  Do you still have it?
4.  If you had to pay it back, would you be in a worse position than if you hadn't received the money in the first place?

The missus worked for Norwich Union for a year when she was at Uni.  She wasn't sure when her last wage would be paid into her account, and so contact them to find out.  They were pretty rude and told her she'd get what she'd earned and then it would stop.  Helpful. 

However, she got a full month's pay and was then expecting a part month, before it stopped and instead she got another full month's pay. 

She didn't actually know this at the time as she hadn't checked the account and assumed Norwich Union would pay her what she was entitled as they'd told her.  We were students and spent it. 

Then a few months later she got a letter from Norwich Union demanding the money be repaid in full immediately.  This would be difficult, as she had no income (as she was a student).  We spoke to someone for legal advice and they went through the points above and basically said that she would have to pay it back - but only in instalments, and small ones at that due to her lack of any income.  We wrote a letter saying this to Norwich Union, and at first they were arsey about it saying they wanted the full amount.  We wrote back saying it would be in instalments.   They obviously decided that they couldn't be arsed chasing the money (which obviously to them wasn't a huge amount), and that was the last we heard about it.  Result.

[lazaroonie]

It depends who it has come from.

As a standard rule if any money is paid to you which is not rightfully yours and you have spent it then you have to agree to pay it back, however the terms are up to you.

East Sussex County Council paid me one months salary after leaving years ago.  I spent it and agreed to pay back £10 per month for numerous years, im still paying it back :-)

absolute nonsense.

if you KNOWLINGLY spend money which is not rightfully yours it is theft, and you are liable to prosecution.

Kin, the law isnt at all vague in this area. The law is precise - what is vague is the difficulty in proving that you knowlingly spent it.

so flushy, the fact that you have posted it on a message board would make their job of proving it all the easier.

[Royal Flush]

It depends who it has come from.

As a standard rule if any money is paid to you which is not rightfully yours and you have spent it then you have to agree to pay it back, however the terms are up to you.

East Sussex County Council paid me one months salary after leaving years ago.  I spent it and agreed to pay back £10 per month for numerous years, im still paying it back :-)

absolute nonsense.

if you KNOWLINGLY spend money which is not rightfully yours it is theft, and you are liable to prosecution.

Kin, the law isnt at all vague in this area. The law is precise - what is vague is the difficulty in proving that you knowlingly spent it.

so flushy, the fact that you have posted it on a message board would make their job of proving it all the easier.

ty m8, so i should tell them to notify the bank?

[lazaroonie]

It depends who it has come from.

As a standard rule if any money is paid to you which is not rightfully yours and you have spent it then you have to agree to pay it back, however the terms are up to you.

East Sussex County Council paid me one months salary after leaving years ago.  I spent it and agreed to pay back £10 per month for numerous years, im still paying it back :-)

absolute nonsense.

if you KNOWLINGLY spend money which is not rightfully yours it is theft, and you are liable to prosecution.

Kin, the law isnt at all vague in this area. The law is precise - what is vague is the difficulty in proving that you knowlingly spent it.

so flushy, the fact that you have posted it on a message board would make their job of proving it all the easier.

ty m8, so i should tell them to notify the bank?

aye. banks can really screw your life up more than you can screw theirs. If it is a significant amount of money I would leave it in the account (hopefully interest bearing), and write to them to inform them of the mistake. It would surprise how long it would take to respond to this and take their money back. At the same time you are earning interest, and can prove that you have taken reasonable steps to inform the bank of their mistake.

I am not sure if the statute of limitations applies in this case, a lawyer would know better, but if it does then after 6 years they no longer have any claim to the money and you could legally keep it.

[kinboshi]

It depends who it has come from.

As a standard rule if any money is paid to you which is not rightfully yours and you have spent it then you have to agree to pay it back, however the terms are up to you.

East Sussex County Council paid me one months salary after leaving years ago.  I spent it and agreed to pay back £10 per month for numerous years, im still paying it back :-)

absolute nonsense.

if you KNOWLINGLY spend money which is not rightfully yours it is theft, and you are liable to prosecution.

Kin, the law isnt at all vague in this area. The law is precise - what is vague is the difficulty in proving that you knowlingly spent it.

It was vague enough to mean that the missus didn't have to automatically pay it all back immediately.

so flushy, the fact that you have posted it on a message board would make their job of proving it all the easier.

But the money isn't in Flushy's account.

[StuartHopkin]

I wouldnt spend it.

If you spend it and its a bank error they will just take it back without asking whether you have the funds or overdraft facility to do it.

[DaveShoelace]

The answer is that it depends.  The law is actually fairly vague in this area. 

It usually boils down to the a number of points such as:

1.  Did you know the money was incorrectly paid into your account or not?
2.  Did you make the efforts to establish where it was from and was it rightly yours?
3.  Do you still have it?
4.  If you had to pay it back, would you be in a worse position than if you hadn't received the money in the first place?

The missus worked for Norwich Union for a year when she was at Uni.  She wasn't sure when her last wage would be paid into her account, and so contact them to find out.  They were pretty rude and told her she'd get what she'd earned and then it would stop.  Helpful. 

However, she got a full month's pay and was then expecting a part month, before it stopped and instead she got another full month's pay. 

She didn't actually know this at the time as she hadn't checked the account and assumed Norwich Union would pay her what she was entitled as they'd told her.  We were students and spent it. 

Then a few months later she got a letter from Norwich Union demanding the money be repaid in full immediately.  This would be difficult, as she had no income (as she was a student).  We spoke to someone for legal advice and they went through the points above and basically said that she would have to pay it back - but only in instalments, and small ones at that due to her lack of any income.  We wrote a letter saying this to Norwich Union, and at first they were arsey about it saying they wanted the full amount.  We wrote back saying it would be in instalments.   They obviously decided that they couldn't be arsed chasing the money (which obviously to them wasn't a huge amount), and that was the last we heard about it.  Result.

I used to work at NU too and that sounds about right. There was a woman there who got overpaid by a grand a month for 6 months and she wasnt on that much anyway. When NU asked for it back, she took a complaint to the Union against NU for making the error and inconvieniencing her and NU backed down and let her keep it. Even the woman from the Union who represented her said it was a joke and she was a complete fuckwit, but she got away with it.

3 years is the amount of time I always understood to be the amount of time it should be left before you can keep onto it. I advise deliberatley sending a poorly written letter declaring you have found this money to a completely unrelated department of your bank (eg a mortgage department) - that way your letter will be scanned on their records but will never find its way to the department that should chase you. That way you can keep the money hopefully and have a fallback saying you told them if they do contact you.