Bank allows people to keep money

Bank of Ireland customers who got twice the amount of money they should have received from an ATM in Enniscorthy last Friday will not have to give the cash back.

One customer went back to the Bank of Ireland ATM in Abbey Square in the town 18 times, while eight people each went back a dozen times on the Friday evening.

The situation was corrected on Saturday morning but not before dozens of people took out cash from the machine.

RTÉ News understands that the bank is out of pocket by around €15,000 because of the mix-up.

Customers received double the amounts of cash they had requested because €20 notes had mistakenly been put into the €10 slot in the machine.

Bank of Ireland has said it will not and cannot debit the account of customers who got extra money due to the error.

A spokeswoman said it is illegal to do so.

It was only ATM cards which were used and no withdrawals were made on credit cards.

The maximum daily withdrawal limit for some ATM cards is €900, meaning that some customers may have got €1,800 cash when they should only have been given half that amount.

There is no obligation on customers to return the money, but a bank spokesperson said they are surprised that not even one customer has been in touch with them saying they got too much money from the machine.

The bank is writing to all customers who got the extra cash telling them it may be appropriate for them to return the money, but that they are not compelled to do so.

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BoI/Indo said:

The bank has lost €15,000 in the mix-up and it is doubtful it will get much, if any, of it back.
The spokesperson admitted that while they know exactly who withdrew the extra cash, it is illegal to debit their account by that amount.
Instead, the bank is depending on the honesty of its customers.
It has written to them telling them it may be appropriate to return the cash, but that they are not compelled to do so.
However a bank official said yesterday that they were surprised that, so far, not one customer has been in touch to report they got too much. [My emphasis]

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ClubMan said:

What can they do? They can't take money from the individuals' accounts to make up the loss (especially since some of the individuals may be customers of other banks). And pursuing the relatively small amount of money though legal channels would most likely not be worth it. I think that just asking the individuals to come clean and make good the loss but otherwise writing it off is all that they can realistically do.

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