Someone has accidentally transferred money into my bank account

LMissLouise on 15/06/2013 - 14:16

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone has had the same experience?

Earlier this week, I noticed that someone had deposited $150 into my bank account. The reference had the persons first name and the name of their bank. I have no idea who this person is and what the money is for, I think it is a mistake.

I contacted my bank to alert them to the error, but they will not send the money back unless the person who sent it lodges a dispute through their bank. I have to just hold on to the money until they realise the error (if they realise the error).

As an Ozbargainer, I love saving money, but I don't want someone else's! Has this happened to anyone else before? What can I do?

Would love your thoughts!

Financial

Comments

  • TheAviator on 15/06/2013 - 14:33

    Not sure what you can do. Hopefully person will realise and claim it I guess

  • ozhunter on 15/06/2013 - 14:36

    It's mine, please send it back :-)

    It's probably annoying but I'd just leave it there, until someone makes the dispute.

  • mick1 on 15/06/2013 - 14:36
    +8

    Talk to you bank again and complain if you need to.
    if it's from someone with an account at the same bank, they can reverse it.
    If it's from an account at another bank, your bank can send it back to the paying bank and they can deal with it.
    The law is that you cannot withdraw or spend the money.

  • retiredfeline on 15/06/2013 - 15:39

    Just leave it there and wait. Not much else you can do.

    • edgar28 on 18/06/2013 - 14:21
      +1

      no good, if it increase ur tax!

  • sparkles on 15/06/2013 - 16:26
    +1

    I know someone who had in excess of a million appear in their bank account. I even saw the ATM slip. By the next morning it was gone. Like MAGIC!

  • Almost Banned on 15/06/2013 - 16:28

    I think you have done the right thing.
    Eventually someone will notice and come looking for it.
    Whatever you do - don't spend it.

    • [Deactivated] on 15/06/2013 - 16:56

      Yep, you've done all you need to do. You have to (for your own peace of mind) take the attitude that if that particular $150 represents a significant amount of money for that particular individual, then, eventually, they will discover the discrepancy in their account and pursue.

      Just be thankful that it's not $150,000, with all of the temptation that may bring (literal OzBargained truckload of Eneloops).

      Unfortunately - at least as far as I know - you can't even keep the interest if such an amount were to appear unwittingly - and hang around long enough - in an interest-bearing account belonging to you.
      Alas, t's a cruel world.

      • wharlie on 15/06/2013 - 18:07

        You mean he doesn't even get to keep a whole $4.00 in interest after 12 mths!

        • King Steuart on 16/06/2013 - 22:09
          +1

          I think he means interest on $150,000

        • Harold Halfprice on 17/06/2013 - 14:37
          +1

          No, i think he means interest on anything - whether 150 or 150,000

      • silvertone on 18/06/2013 - 22:07

        Happened once to me when I was a uni student, $39,000!

        It was reversed within hours though, before I even had a chance to decide whether to withdraw it or not, so it was a mistake at the bank, not in someone's internet bank transferring…

        I kept the ATM balance request print out for years though!

  • Qroozn on 15/06/2013 - 18:31

    I have previously paid someone when i didn't mean to (I had a scheduled payment go through accidentally). I quickly rang the bank and told them. However I had to wait for the other person to "agree" that they were not supposed to get the money back before it could be reversed. In the end it was all too hard; and I had the person give me "cash" rather than getting the payment reversed.

    I'm wondering if you can lodge something at the police station. If in 12 months it remains "unclaimed"
    then you might be able to keep it!

    • wolffram on 17/06/2013 - 16:39

      "I'm wondering if you can lodge something at the police station. If in 12 months it remains "unclaimed""

      That only works when you physically hand lost property in to the police. After 3 months it is either returned to the finder if they made claim, or it goes into consolidated revenue.

      • wallet72 on 18/06/2013 - 13:04

        so taking it a step further, what if he withdrew the money and handed it in at a police station? It's essentially 'found' property right?

  • c64 on 15/06/2013 - 19:05

    at the moment you should just leave it alone

  • [Deactivated] on 15/06/2013 - 21:59

    If it's still there in a fortnight or so and hasn't been reversed tell your bank to get their fingers out and contact the other institution to get the error rectified. They are putting you in a difficult position as you can be prosecuted for theft if you knowingly spend or transfer it.

  • danyool on 15/06/2013 - 23:13
    -1

    Thank your mum, and go shopping!

  • MissLouise on 15/06/2013 - 23:59

    Thanks for the advice guys, looks like I will just look after it until it is claimed. I don't think my bank wants to know about it, it is annoying they won't follow it up and that it can only be reversed if a request is made by the sender. Hopefully the sender will notice their error, I'd certainly notice if I was missing $150!!

    • rmamila on 02/12/2013 - 14:14

      Depends how much money they have in the account. I'd notice too. I only have the big figures in the wrong side of the account. :)

  • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2013 - 07:38
    +6

    Full credit to you for your attitude. You can only wait to see if someone requests their bank to get the money back. The bank knows exactly where it came from but unless the owner of the money asks for it to be rectified the bank is unable to profit from the situation (aka fees). Does that sound familiar? I was once on the other side of the equation when I accidentally transferred a small amount of money to the wrong account. The bank supposely notified the recipient but apparently the recipient did not offer to give the money back so end of road. As it may weigh their conscience down in years to come probably a well lost $30. As they say what goes around, comes around.

    Once again Louise full credit or your honesty in attitude:)

  • uaapd on 16/06/2013 - 07:40

    Ring the Banking Ombudsman. They will give you the contact details of someone at your bank who can sort it out.

    • Candour on 16/06/2013 - 09:35

      they are useless in real disputes with the financial services industry and are funded by banks to keep conusmers fobbed off poinless mediations, compeomises and bad decisions which favour the business members
      asic will not get involved
      ministers also duck.

      • uaapd on 21/06/2013 - 09:41

        I've used the banking ombudsman several times including when I signed a fixed rate mortgage and the bank then put up the interest rate before they advanced the money.

    • Gina Rinehart on 16/06/2013 - 15:49
      -2

      That's illegal…

    • Candour on 16/06/2013 - 18:19
      +2

      meant to neg but gave a + by mistake.
      it is wrong to profit from others financial mistakes even when society cheats us systemically.

    • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2013 - 20:42
      +1

      That's theft!

    • bogan on 16/06/2013 - 21:31
      +2

      I believe the last time someone tried that it didn't end well
      Leo Gao and Kara Hurring

      • bargdebarg on 18/06/2013 - 21:17

        Gold! I like how long it took Westpac to realise their error :)

    • chipstss on 16/06/2013 - 22:54
      +1

      What if you withdraw all your money leave the 150 in there and close the account?

  • Aneurism on 16/06/2013 - 12:50
    -3

    I wish someone accidentally sent me a ton of money. I could put it on my mortgage offset account until the bank decided to recover it :)

  • mrtempeh on 16/06/2013 - 13:23

    happened to me too, $4000 they put in, I had to do a lot to send it back, pain in the ass for me, bank f*** up I had to fix it…

  • philart on 16/06/2013 - 15:50

    Banks are frustrating Institutions. I transposed some figures on a transfer and transferred some money to someone unknown to me. I rang the bank and they confirmed where the payment went. They wouldn't reverse the payment on my say so, but instead had to contact the receiving account to corroborate things. Fortunately the other party agreed it was money they weren't expecting. You might expect the Bank to then reverse the payment? Oh no, it doesn't work like that, they requested the receiver to do a transfer back to my account. They explained to me that sender and receiver are merely using the Banks facilities and their powers are limited. Funny that because when money inadvertently arrived on my account one morning, the next it was gone. On another occasion a standing order was dishonoured and they charged me a dishonour fee, no ifs, no buts just took it from me. The annoying thing about it was the fact we had thousands in our savings account.

    • rmamila on 02/12/2013 - 14:25

      Same thing has happened to me before. When I have done many transactions in a day.. in and out and once went to an ATM and withdrew some cash as well and at the time it was showing a positive balance. Went home and made a transfer into this account as I was expecting a direct debit at that night.
      To my surprise I saw that bank had charged two $30 fines on that day by just rearranging the transactions and still had big positive amount in account. One for the ATM withdrawal. I went to the branch and argued that I withdrew money because it had positive balance at that time. Then they explained that when they process the list of transactions the direct debit has happened first to bring it to negative balance and then applied the other transactions. This was in 2008 and with biggest retail bank in here :). Hope this doesn't happen anymore.

  • freemoneyhunter on 16/06/2013 - 16:44
    -4

    What you can do is withdrawl the money and say you gave it to someone else. It think it could be fair to say that you did not want someone else's money in your account so you removed it.

    • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2013 - 17:30
      +2

      I presume the concept of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' is foreign to you? Dishonesty is never an acceptable answer.

    • one man clan on 17/06/2013 - 08:46
      +1

      Unfortunately, "I think it could be fair" is not a legal maxim.

  • t_c on 16/06/2013 - 18:24
    +2

    This guy sat on wrongly deposited funds for a year before partially withdrawing some and ended up being charged and found guilty of fraud

    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/finders-arent-keepers/sto…

  • MissLouise on 16/06/2013 - 20:10
    +1

    Interesting. It sounds like that guy didn't contact his bank about it and just left the money there thinking they would eventually recover it. The article says to contact your bank if this happens, but when I did that, they threw their hands up in the air!

    I wonder if there should be an option for people to authorise a deposit into their account before the transfer is complete - like the SMS you get when you transfer money out, but one for the person receiving the funds. That way, if someone you don't know tries to send you money, you can reject it from the outset and avoid the issue.

    • DrStinge on 17/06/2013 - 08:49
      +3

      As a point of precaution write down the times you spoke to the bank, the person's name, and a quick log of the conversation.

  • spoonmugen on 16/06/2013 - 22:44

    maybe the person who deposited the funds did an online purchase and not aware that he keyed in the wrong bsb/acc?… he'll realise after 1-2wks after seller hasnt received his/her funds and they will come to the conclusion that the wrong bank details entered…

    like the guy about said lucky its only $150…

    not much in the grand scheme of things but these days - with increased utility bills - u dont know what the $150 could mean to the other person.

    just wait 2 wks - if its still there then ask the bank to reverse again.
    after a mth i think you've done what you can…

    • rmamila on 02/12/2013 - 14:28

      Imagine if this money was intended to pay for something like parking fine at a council. The fine will exponentially grow over the time he realize the mistake.

  • wtfnodeal on 16/06/2013 - 23:42

    Happened to me before but for only $50. I asked my bank if they could find out who was it and return the money and I was told it would cost me $57 to find out for me. Then I said forget it mate. My bank account balance still has more than $50 that means i haven't spent this unknown money yet?

  • demiurge on 16/06/2013 - 23:58

    You'll just have to leave it in your account and not spend it, no sure if there's any more you can do. I'm sure it's a pay anyone transaction with wrong bsb/account number. They'll find out eventually.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/06/2013 - 11:53

    I've had that happen to me but I checked and it was $97.50. Which I thought was strange because I usually deposit a whole dollar amount. I went into the branch and they said it was deposited through an ATM. I never deposit money using ATM so I knew it wasn't mine. The bank put a hold on that 97.50 so my current balance was 97.50 less than my available balance.
    I guess it went back to the right owner. But I still did t know how this mixup could've screwed up with an ATM

  • ircer on 17/06/2013 - 16:52
    -1

    Put it in your high interests account so you'll earn interests while waiting for someone to claim it :)

    • Gina Rinehart on 17/06/2013 - 16:59
      +2

      I wouldn't be moving it anywhere, especially for 50c a month in a good savings account… Definitely not worth the risk considering it is not actually legal to have the money knowingly and do nothing about it.

      If anyone has half a brain in this situation (like OP does), they would simply leave it, contact the bank over and over again until they fix it, log every conversation as a legal precaution and wait.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/06/2013 - 18:22
    +1

    Well, i've tried to look at this from every angle possible, and i can't, well, quite see what the problem is…

  • gautamp on 18/06/2013 - 08:03
    +2

    Hello Friend.

    I have worked for large financial organization in fraud and there are many different things that can happen. The first is that you should notify the bank. Which you have already done so that we can see if this is one of the case or across our customers.

    As a customer if this happens to you one thing I strongly recommend is that you should change all your bank account credentials (online password). If this happens more than once, talk to your bank and change/disabled your cards. Sometimes people don't report when they get money and get caught in unnecessary money laundering issue. You could be a mule in the whole fraud.

    Hope this helps.

    Gautam

    • cristtos on 18/06/2013 - 11:55
      +1

      Laundering $150?! Does not seem very efficient…
      But again it may be a ping test for the next stage…

  • May4th on 18/06/2013 - 10:35

    i wonder what would happen if you genuinely didn't notice the extra funds in your account? i know i don't go through my bank statement thoroughly on a regular basis and wouldn't be surprised if there are unaccounted transactions (expenditures mostly, unfortunately)

    • samfisher5986 on 20/06/2013 - 10:34

      Nothing.

      You just have to give it back when its noticed.

      Obviously if its a huge amount then they can reasonably assume you would notice your $50 account becoming $10000.

      Otherwise i don't think there is anything to worry about.

      Chances are someone will eventually figure out the mistake, why not just return it and not waste your time thinking about it.

      • May4th on 20/06/2013 - 22:21

        coz it's annoying and i'm lazy.. i'd rather not have to spend 15min of my day waiting on the line to speak to a bank and then another 15min explaining what happened :(

        • tooblue on 21/06/2013 - 14:18

          But how much time and energy have you already spent on the forums for the issue?

        • May4th on 21/06/2013 - 21:48

          none. i didn't open this thread. i browse at my leisure

  • morpheu on 19/06/2013 - 14:20

    moral here is, when transferring money double or even triple check the BSB/ACC numbers are correct, you know, kind of like "measure twice cut once"

  • inherentchoice on 23/06/2013 - 08:37
    +1

    My friend was meant to transfer me $150 but he used the wrong account number. He then transferred another $150. I told him to ask the bank to recover his $150 but he wouldn't listen to me. I've linked him to this thread now…

  • Baysew on 23/11/2013 - 10:59

    Has there been any final outcome ?

  • rmb on 28/03/2019 - 15:20

    what was the end result of this? I have had some money deposited into my credit card account that was closed 6 years ago - the bank cannot tell me the source as it is a bpay payment - they can't trace it.

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