$1500 randomly deposited into our bank account, what do we do?

[Lorax7844]

Probably a bank error, we know family didn't do this.

[madaboutharry]

1. Go to the bank and tell them.

[exboyfil]

14. My wife got a deposit into her IRA

that was a mistake. It should have gone into someone elses IRA. I called Fidelity and straightened it out without understanding what was going on until I got into the conversation.

I have to admit that for a moment I thought about starting to lie to see if we could keep the deposit. My better angels prevailed, and I did not. Probably would have been caught eventually anyway.

[Poll_Blind]

25. They usually catch errors like that within a week or two at most. Someone...

...once explained the particular audit system my bank used in such cases but I wasn't paying all that close attention. It's much better to alert the bank as early as possible- reason is if you don't alert them, and some time passes (say more than a few months) they're going to just go in and take it out anyway and on the off chance you dipped into it (even unintentionally) it's going to put you in the negative and they have no problems hitting you with overdue charges which they're reluctant to reduce.

PB

[flvegan]

2. Send it to me. We'll pretend nothing ever happened.

[KingFlorez]

3. Contact the bank

[salvorhardin]

4. Simple

Tell the bank it has made an error. If you spend it, they're still going to want it back.

[Lorax7844]

9. I'm going to the bank tomorrow.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

[madaboutharry]

17. I actually did.

About 15 years ago $600 mysteriously showed up in my checking account. The bank could not figure out where it came from. They went through my registers by hand and through their records. They couldn't figure it out. They knew it was a mistake, but in the absence of knowing where it belonged, they gave it to me.

[Lorax7844]

20. fingers crossed

:P

[Fridays Child]

26. Yes, $800. A long time ago.

One of the bankers and I went over everything with a fine-toothed comb and couldn't figure it out. They let me keep it. Yay! And another time, they erroneously digit-encoded an $11 check I wrote for $1,100. Went to the bank, again, and they found the error. They repaid all of my NSF fees on that one.

[salvorhardin]

28. I did once, albeit it a much smaller sum.

About $200. Turned out to be a clerical error when a teller mistyped an account number. This was back in the '80s so it was much easier for that kind of thing to happen. Alas, the bank did not give me the money. :D Good luck.

[thecrow]

30. My bank added an extra zero to my deposit

which made it a $10,000 mistake!
I was tempted to leave town :)

[liberalhistorian]

40. Yes, I did, once. I discovered a strange deposit of $250

in my account that I know for sure didn't come from me or anyone else I knew. I told the bank right away to try to get it straightened out, but they were really blase about it, like they couldn't care less. I had to fill out a few forms and then that gave them permission to pull up the deposit slip and see what had happened. Since this was over a decade ago, it took them over a week to get the deposit slip from the main office and I was told I'd just have to wait it out and see. I didn't touch any of the money during that time, of course (it wasn't mine to touch).

When I finally got the slip, I saw right away what had happened and went back to the bank. Another customer had an account number that was very, very close to mine and his deposit had accidentally been placed into my account instead of his; the difference was only one number, so I could see how easy it would have been for a teller to have made that mistake. They got it straightened out finally and put the poor guy's money from mine to his account.

What I couldn't figure out was why he hadn't said anything during all that time. It was nearly two weeks before it all got straightened out and the bank hadn't heard from him at all. From the copy of his paycheck that had been deposited, it looked like he was a temporary employee and, thus, living paycheck to paycheck. What really struck me was just how la-di-da the bank was, like they couldn't have cared less. It was all on me to figure it out and straighten it out.

[Princess Turandot]

47. Just two week ago, I saw an erroneous credit owed to me in a check overdraft line..

for exactly $1,500. It was dated a few weeks earlier. I normally only see that account (without looking for it,) if I access the account online, as opposed to at an ATM.

I decided to wait a few more weeks to see if they would catch it on their own, which they did. It took them almost 4 weeks in total though.

[Critters2]

5. Is it from a dear friend in Nigeria? nt

[imdjh]

6. They'll find it when they reconcile. Believe me they will.

[onehandle]

7. Put it on Black 22. nt

[LiberalAndProud]

8. Leave it in your account. It will disappear just as mysteriously

as it appeared. A teller got the wrong account number on somebody else's deposit, and that somebody else is sure to notice in to the not-to-distant future. I would bet on it.

[Oregone]

15. And if it doesn't disappear in a year, go on a shopping spree.

What not to do: don't contact them. Don't post on a message board. Dont let on you know about it. Leave no trace. If everyone forgets about it, including you, then dip into it when its safe.

[Poll_Blind]

16. Ya, that's exactly what's going to happen. I've had it happen before.

The only way you'll even be able to track that it happened at all, after the fact, is contacting the Bank and having someone go through all the transactions one by one. It's friggin' amazing how shit like that goes down, but it sure does. If I recall correctly, it won't even show up on your transaction statement.

PB

[Selatius]

10. Why even ask such a question? The obvious answer is to return it.

It's not your money.

[Skink]

11. Reacher my friend.

[Lorax7844]

13. Of course we won't keep it, I was asking about how do you deal with the bank

[SmileyRose]

12. A bank coming after you is A LOT scarier than an IRS audit

and they will hurt you a lot worse.

Just leave it there and pretend it doesn't exist.

[Lorax7844]

18. I'm going to the bank tomorrow, to tell them, hopefully it won't be a giant hassle

will it?

[Oregone]

21. Repeat: ignore it.

And pretend its not there for a while. Either they will fix it or forget about it

[SmileyRose]

23. DO NOT GO TO THE BANK

DO NOT EVEN TELL THE BANK

IGNORE IT.

I've been on the bank end of this and if you tell them anything you exponentially increase the potential for more human error that will rob you of the money that is actually yours.


DO NOTHING. DO NOT SPEND IT. DO NOT MOVE IT. DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE IT IN ANY WAY.

[jberryhill]

32. Probably more of a hassle than letting them find it on their own...

...if you start an investigation, and someone already has, then it will complicate their process for sorting it out.

Give them time to sort it out first. Do not spend it or consider it yours in the meantime.

[tomm2thumbs]

19. come back and tell us what happened. maybe it was a gift from someone. how cool is that?

[Cleita]

22. Tell the bank. Somebody else probably got $1500 deducted from their

account. It wouldn't be fair of you to keep it even if you could get away with it.

[Lorax7844]

24. I would never do that. Keep it, I mean

my conscience would kill me.

[Cleita]

27. You'd be surprised how many would. I'm glad to read you

aren't one of them.

[Lorax7844]

29. I don't need the bad karma

[uncle ray]

51. maybe it's karma paying out.

[jberryhill]

33. You could be charged with theft if you did....

According to the district attorney's office in Walworth County, Wis., a man was charged with theft when a check for more than $49,000 was accidentally deposited into his account at Fifth Third Bank. "He was having financial difficulties so he spent it," Walworth County district attorney Phillip Koss says. "When the bank asked for it back, he put them off. But when he was charged with theft he came up with the money."


For the moment, though, the bank is in the best position to sort it out.

[safeinOhio]

34. I caught a $400 mistake because I always balanced my check book

with my statement. That was back in 1991. I told the bank and have never balanced my account again. Just to protect my conscience.

[anigbrowl]

52. Why not? You didn't steal it

It's the bank's fuckup, not yours. Don't spend it, but you have no moral obligation to help them out either.

[ashling]

31. Send the bank a statement / bill such as:

"The $15OO you erroneously put in my account is being returned minus the service charge of $45.00 for dealing with this matter. Additionally, you will be charged a late fee of $25.00 for each day that the $1455.00 continues to show as in my account.

Thank you for your business. "

:rofl:

[Pool Hall Ace]

36. Best answer!

:spray:

[Voice for Peace]

38. very good.

:rofl:

[nevergiveup]

41. Priceless!!!!

[Lorax7844]

42. I wish!

[napi21]

35. Make sure you ask the bank for a letter explaining their error.

The IRS is looking for every penney they can find, and if you can't explain that $1.500, they'll whan't their share.

FWIW, an exboss of mine had the bank mistakenly deposit $1,000,000 in HIS A/C. He had to produce that bank letter to get off the hook!

[LiberalAndProud]

37. I was on the other end of the error.

I noticed. I called, with receipt in hand, and asked that all the overdraft charges be removed from my account. They traced the deposit, took the money out of the other account and put it in mine and refunded my fees. Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience. But it could have been disastrous if the holder of the other account (having the same last four digits in their account number) had noticed and started spending (It was my company account, and a rather larger sum).

[MrModerate]

39. The credit union once inadvertently transferred one of my brother's T-bills

Into my account. When I called, I must have encountered the stupidest person in the history of banking, because he kept insisting that everything was correct. I had to go into the CU in person to straighten it out, and I was more than a little aggravated.

When I got there, I fenced with the counter clerk and her manager trying to get them to admit their error and pretending that I wanted to cash the thing and close my account (which was an order of magnitude larger than the T-bill). After about an hour of this, someone higher up in the bank became involved, immediately recognised what had happened, and then crawled down my throat because I had "known all along what had happened" and was still giving them a hard time.

I told this officious dweeb that I was in the bank to find out what had happened and -- more importantly -- find out how to prevent it from happening again and that maybe he needed to look at the flaws in his processes rather than accusing his customers of fraud. Then *his* boss intervened and I got a nice apology on the spot.

They fixed the error with a few keystrokes and all was good. Hopefully they didn't do that too often.

[MajorChode]

43. I had about $1700 taken out of my bank account once

I opened an account and declined to take the temporary checks they give you. They gave them to the next guy that opened an account and he made his mortgage payment with one.

The deposit probably belongs to some other bank member. The sooner you tell the bank about it, the sooner they can credit the proper account. Someone else might be in dire straights about right now.

[Lorax7844]

50. I know, I'm going to tell the bank tomorrow

hopefully some poor schulb isn't getting screwed

[ohheckyeah]

44. If you have online banking

you may be able to click on the deposit for more information. I can with BofA online banking.

[defendandprotect]

45. Call them . .. but will probably be quickly reversed . . .

[proteus_lives]

46. You should tell the bank.

I know it's tempting to keep it but the right thing to do is the right thing to do.

[MrSlayer]

48. Wait.

And see what happens. They'll probably figure it out. Or maybe they won't.

[buczak]

49. Reality Check: Inform the bank.

I would inform the bank, get a copy of their response in writing and don't do anything else with the money.

BTW, If you spend the money, it could be grand larceny.


http://consumerist.com/5347976/if-the-bank-accidentally-gives-you-11000-and-you-wont-give-it-back-youre-gonna-get-arrested

[Lorax7844]

53. bank error, all fixed

could have used the money but alas it wasn't mine :(