Money still in my account - what will I do?

T

test

Guest
It seems that recently I payed a cheque nad it seems to have processed twice.
Say the cheque was 500 euro.
The first time the cheque processed it cleared 500 euro form my account leaving it at say 100 euro balance.
The person recieving the money was paid.
The next day it seems the bank tried to process the cheque again.
This time the cheque seems to have bounced and they returned 500 euro to my account and took out an "Unpaid Fee" of X amount.
so now I have 500 euro back in my account.
So - my dilema is -
The bank seems to have made a mistake in processing twice, but the person I was paying got their money and now I have 500 euro in my account.

What should I do? my gut feeling says to go to my bank and point it out. But then again - my other side feels like I might get away with it.
In fact the amount is more substantial than 500 euro so I'm a bit scared by it all.
Any ideas???? - at the moment I'm feeling I'll just say nothing for a month or two and see if they discover it for themselves.
 
It's entirely up to you whether or not you alert the bank to your mistake. But these things often come to light later on & the 500 euro will disapperar out of your a/c one day!

On a different note, it is rather worrying that the bank processed the cheque twice. I'd alert them on this basis.
 
Yeah, alert them, but first write a few more of these magic cheques where both parties get paid!
 
Yeh - my gut says alert them. but I also think they will cop it soon enough anyway.

But the amount is actually substantial so I'm thinking that maybe I should capitalise (like the banks do on us) so I was thinking of doing the following:
I could leave it ly i my account for 1-2 months it to see if they cop it or not.
Then I could transfer money to another account and invest/work it (That way I wouldn't be spending it but making on it) then if they come looking for it I can just give them back the amount.
I've some quetions though...
Could the fact that the second bank transaction bounced affect my credit rating/creditworthiness for the future?
What would be a good investment to assure that the original amount is returnable if/when the bank come looking for it?
getting a bit tetchy about this and kind of hope the bank just cop and resolve it, but then again, this could be a lucky break for me and how often do they come along....
 
I don't think that a single bounced check will cause you problems on your credit rating.

Bear in mind that the bank will probalby eventually come looking for it. I'm prsuming you will also want to get a refund on the unpaid fee. There's no guarantee that they will contact you when they discover the error, they may just pull the money back out of your account, which could cause you problems.

If you want to put it to work, why wait a couple of months? move it out right now.
 
There is little point in playing silly buggers on this. Unless the amount involved is very large, any amount of interest you earn on it is likely to be tiny. If the amount involved is very large, you could find yourself dealing with accusations of fraud if you move the money from your account while knowing that it doesn't properly belong to you. Any implication or suspicion of dishonesty on your part could have dire consequences for you in the long run, at least with the bank in question.

Do yourself a favour, alert the bank, let them sort the error and move on...
 
Tell the truth and shame the devil
No amount of money is worth looking over your shoulder for. I hope something lovely happens you then to make you feel good for being honest.
 
I would go to the bank and ask them to clarify what exactly has happened to the account regarding the last XX number of transactions. I would not suggest you try to claim money that is not yours. It is irelevant how much money the bank takes off you in charges this doesn't condone taking money that is not yours. The bank should clear up the matter and then there can be no possible negative outcome with your credit rating. If they owed you 500 euro you would report it to them!
Also I would think the banks would regard you moving this 500 out of your account as possible fraud as mentioned earlier. Get onot the bank and get it cleared up and save your conscience!
 
mmmmm....
I am really thinking now. the amount is low 5 figures and I could do something nice with it.
I will sleep on it for a while but I think I'll take the last few peoples advise and owne up as I like the straight and narrow. Cant really get my head around having things like that hanging over me. and you'd never forget something like that and I suppose it would come back and bite me in the ass some day.

Maybe something good will come of it if I alert the bank, but then again theres a devil in there saying keep it quiet.
I did ring the banks 24 hour assistance number and notified them but they didnt know what had happened and told me to ring my bank branch directly.
I'll let you know.
 
I'm having second thoughts too about my earlier advice to be good
Do you use the account all the time?
 
test,

This is going to sound terribly prissy but here goes....

The very fact that you're asking the question indicates you know the answer already.

This money is not yours. It belongs to the bank.

If you don't give it back, or at least make all necessary efforts to point out to them their error, you would be doing something wrong. It doesn't really matter whether the technical offence is fraud, theft or whatever - it is wrong and potentially a crime.

The fact that the putative "victim" would be a bank which is probably astonishingly profitable and, given recent corporate history in this country, may well have committed offences on its customers/the Irish public far more heinous than what you're contemplating is irrelevant.

Give the money back.
 
Are you sure the other person actually received the money? Maybe they had a problem cashing it and will come looking for it from you?
 
Yes - the other party recieved their money alright and the money is showing as taken out of my account on the first time the cheque was processed.

We were thinking we could just leave it sit in the account and not go near it, but I guess the bank will eventually sort it out as it is substantial and I'm sure come month end it would probably raise its head; but then again the banks write money off that cant be found all the time.
Gonna speak with my better half this morning and discuss but I think the best thing is if she goes down to the local branch and alerts them to the error.

Feel like a sucker for going the "Just" road - almost prefer if this time I could be that bit of a "rogue" and sit on it and keep quiet. Why not capitalise on it? you think the "Big Guns" would even bother thinking twice about a situation like this?

I know if I was asked for advise on the same issue by someone else I'd probably tell them to keep their mouths closed and sit on it ;-)
 
A woman over in South America checked her account and there was some mental amount of money in her account like €80000000000, and she told the truth to the bank and all her family disowned her and said she brought the comehither on the whole lot of them.

Anyway, I asked a few people last night and nobody really knew what to do. The galling thing is that the bank wont even say thank you, not to mind giving you a reward.

May the force be with you whatever you decide
 
Would it not be possible to leave the money in your account and just say nothing. That way if they bank find out you can plead ignorance and say you never check your balance because you know how much you should have in the bank. Maybe some of the legal eagles can tell us if there is a statute of limitations relating to the recovery of such an error?

Zapa.
 
If you just leave it there, they will eventually reverse it out, together with any interest earned on it. You gain nothing by keeping it there.
 
Ubiquitious & Seagull,

I think you both missed my point there. I asked if there is a statute of limitations in such an instance, i.e. if there is and the money is still in your account after that period of time then the money is rightfully yours. (This is almost definately not the case - but there is no harm asking the question). I thought the point was straight forward enough.

Zapa.
 
My wife is on her way down to the local branch to let them know ;-((
And the strange thing is that in todays sun star signs. Pisces said I'd come into a lrarge sum of cash I wasnt expecting...
I'm going to buy a monthly lotto ticket! - you never know....
I'll post tomorrow to let you know what the final outcome is.
 
6 years from the date of the error.
 
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