[Closed] Bank cock up - WWSTD?

Buy a Garmin Solar Instinct…

option 1 is your only option really. which is a shame

I’d be tempted to set up a separate account, just to keep it isolated , just in case they bollox things up even more, speaking as a non-Santander customer, but as someone who gets emails directly from them about looking after my account, and promotions. I’ve checked to see if they’re phishing attempts, as I’ve had a lot of those, but they seem to be coming from a legit Santander account.
Quite why they think I’m a client I have no idea, I’ve been banking with Lloyds since the early 1970’s, and I have a couple of Halifax accounts, but never had any connection with Santander.

2. Move it to a different account, make it harder to get back but keep it in case things get legal

I think thats called 'Theft by finding'

3. Spend it (and on what? Apart from C+Hs).

Also 'theft by finding'

to be frank, even no 1 is a lttle bit Theft by finding. If you know something isn't yours, just keeping mum about it and hope the rightful owner doesnt notice you have it doesnt really cut it in law. Although given the issue is widespread and well publicised I'd expect leaving it be on the assumption that your bank and Santander can resolve it between themselves seems a sensible approach.

They'll get it all back eventually, just a bit of a PR mess in the short term.

2. Move it to a different account, make it harder to get back but keep it in case things get legal.

I think thats called ‘Theft by finding’

You move your money into the wrong account by accident, banks are pretty much "tough luck" They move their money into your account by accident, all of a sudden; it's theft by finding...

contact them and explain you've been given too much money and how do you hand it back.

Move it to a different account and when asked for it back, give it back.

It would not be my money, so I move it to an account which cannot be spent from directly in order to keep it safe. Duty of care and all that.

You move your money into the wrong account by accident, banks are pretty much “tough luck” They move their money into your account by accident, all of a sudden; it’s theft by finding…

Its tough luck in the sense that paying to the wrong account  its your mistake to fix not theirs - you're given ample chance to check the details before you commit to making a payment. For the recipient if they know the money isn't theres and they can take reasonable steps to find where it came from, but don't take those steps, then thats Theft by Finding.

If you find £20 on the pavement on a busy street you've no way of knowing who it came from and you couldn't trust anyone who claimed it was theirs to have an honest claim to it - so you found it, you didn't steel it, but its not theft because there's not a reasonable step to take to identify the owner

If you find a wallet with a drivers license and £20 in it - you can easily identify the owner - their name and address and a photo of them is right there. You found it, you didn't steel it - but keeping it is theft

In these cases they are duplicate payments from business accounts so they'll be clearly identified as to where they came from - the recipient will ether be on a payroll or will have invoiced for the amount and there will be a corresponding reference on the payment - they'll know both that its an error and they'll know who made it

contact them and explain you’ve been given too much money and how do you hand it back.

Problem with this is the payment isn't actually coming from Santander - well it is - but on the bank statement it will show as coming from either an employer or a company who manages their payroll. There is no-one for the recipient to contact directly to give it back - other than their employer - who would be equally in the dark.

I'd move it to another account but only to avoid confusion, I like to control my spending and account balance and to have to always remember to subtract an additional salary would be confusing :whistles:

1 it’s the only genuine option.

If you find £20 on the pavement on a busy street you’ve no way of knowing who it came from and you couldn’t trust anyone who claimed it was theirs to have an honest claim to it – so you found it, you didn’t steel it, but its not theft because there’s not a reasonable step to take to identify the owner

You hand it into the police station if goes unclaimed it’s yours.

You hand it into the police station if goes unclaimed it’s yours.

they'd probably not accept it - who would be able to legitimately claim it - how could the police know that someone was a rightful claim to a single note?- if it was a large sum its different - a rightful owner could describe how much it is, whether its in large or small denominations for instance, or describe what the money was contained in but small sums are impossible to make a compelling claim over

But actually that gives an option 4 - transfer the money to the a policemen's bank account and trust that if it goes unclaimed he'll transfer it back to you 🙂

I had a purse left at an event I organised. Plod don't take purse/wallets/passports any more.

Move it to a different account and when asked for it back, make the bank provide a series of obscure documents, via inconvenient means (for security and "because money laundering regulations mean you have to"), and when they ring to chase it, make them spend 40 minutes in a queue while a recorded message tells them that you have a fun and helpful website where many tasks can be completed every 20 seconds.

Then tell them they might get the money back in up to 28 working days...

You move your money into the wrong account by accident, banks are pretty much “tough luck” They move their money into your account by accident, all of a sudden; it’s theft by finding…

Welcome to life. Are you new at this?

So the options are contact santander, or attempt to steal it. I'm guessing not breaking rule one is optional if screwing someone over is involved, classy.

Just been to El Reg to find the background behind this story and found nothing. Standards are slipping; back in the day if someone put the BACS tape through twice they'd have posted something even if it was from the pub on Christmas day and an anonymous insider would have leaked what happened in the comments. Tried The Inquirer instead - and it's gone! That was a shock.

Move it to a different account and when asked for it back, make the bank provide a series of obscure documents, via inconvenient means (for security and “because money laundering regulations mean you have to”), and when they ring to chase it, make them spend 40 minutes in a queue while a recorded message tells them that you have a fun and helpful website where many tasks can be completed every 20 seconds.

Genius!

This all assumes that the recipient is not overdrawn and they have the means to get more money

Move it to a different account and when asked for it back, make the bank provide a series of obscure documents, via inconvenient means (for security and “because money laundering regulations mean you have to”), and when they ring to chase it, make them spend 40 minutes in a queue while a recorded message tells them that you have a fun and helpful website where many tasks can be completed every 20 seconds.

Then tell them they might get the money back in up to 28 working days…

I love the idea of taking the bank employee through a series of security questions.

'I see a transaction involving Tesco on the 27th - can you tell me how much that was for?'

There are many people out there paid enough, without much attention to detail, that wouldn’t even notice. Obv not us lot on the forum but I think theft by finding has to be intentional. Would be very hard to prove for that lot. That said, only time something g like this has happened to me it was sorted automatically within days. Had I taken out the money I would have been hit with fees (which I’m sure would have been waived). They will come after it, if it’s not there they may just sell the debt to one of those annoying door knocking CO’s. Not worth hassle.

they’d probably not accept it – who would be able to legitimately claim it – how could the police know that someone was a rightful claim to a single note?-

That’s exactly what the law states if you find money though, it’s the reasonable step you asked about.

As @MacCruiskeen states, option 1 is the only option, yes you read about this stuff happening and folk moving it out of their account, or spending it as fast as they can, but they are also the ones who have nothing to lose, so getting a suspended sentence or worse isn't a massive issue for them.

If you have found this payment and it's not expected, married to the santander issue in the press, it would be wise to just keep it at the ready to transfer back, anything else will just bring annoyance to you in the long run.

Back in the day turned up for some overtime on a late project to find a lot more people in the office than usual on a Saturday, instantly presented with a file and tasked to write a system to handle the correspondence of sorting out of taking premiums from the wrong bank accounts.(lotus notes was good for this type of quick and dirty)

Still at least it wasn’t my code going wrong that day 🙂

Yeah don’t spend it,just cos it’s in your account doesn’t mean it’s yours.

Unless you move everything out of your account they will still recover it, might still recover the money even if your account is empty. Anyway thats what they are doing, there's apparently a bank cock up scheme that allows them to recover things like this.

It’s theft by finding

Nearly. The offence is retaining a wrongful credit.

Which police force(s) no longer accept found property? Mine does, and I was under the impression that it’s a statutory duty.

EDIT - Most of them it seems, following an NPCC statement a couple of years ago. Lazy bastards.

You'll have to return it....

Seems unfair of them to actually not write off what she spent TBH since they could have lost the lot.

Move it to a different account and when asked for it back, make the bank provide a series of obscure documents, via inconvenient means (for security and “because money laundering regulations mean you have to”), and when they ring to chase it, make them spend 40 minutes in a queue while a recorded message tells them that you have a fun and helpful website where many tasks can be completed every 20 seconds.

Then tell them they might get the money back in up to 28 working days…

😂😂

Reminds me of my company doing a charity collection from salary years ago for some reason. Employees gave well and the total was 10k plus. The monies were paid over and our CEO at the time got a phone call to thank the company for 1 million plus donation.
Decimal points are important! There followed a very awkward please can we have our money bank. Which was nothing compared to the awkward conversation for the 2 people which processed and approved the payment!

Place it in a different account and demand a 'finders fee' for it's safe return.

Alternatively, you could hang on to it for a lot longer and just be unavailable when the bank comes looking.

Or maybe put it into premium bonds and hope you get lucky all the while fobbing the bank off with a list of inventive excuses.

If you have found this payment and it’s not expected, married to the santander issue in the press, it would be wise to just keep it at the ready to transfer back, anything else will just bring annoyance to you in the long run.

Wot I sed. I don’t pay a huge amount of attention to the news, this thread was the first I’d hear about it. It’s entirely possible, that should an unusual and significant amount of money turned up in my main account, I’d be getting a phone call from my account manager, asking me if I knew anything about all this money, and is there anything I should have notified her about!

She’s really very good about such things, and if I’d noticed it first, I could call her personal number and ask her if she knew what the chuff was going on! And what I ought to do about it.

Don’t forget to invoice them for your time in resolving their error.

2 options... Red or black!

I doubt they will even tell you before taking it back automatically…

There are many people out there paid enough, without much attention to detail, that wouldn’t even notice.

There are also people who aren't paid enough, and yet see banks makes billions of profits and their employees take big bonuses. So if a double pay day in the bank's error occurs, a royal "up yours" might not be right, but would feel pretty good.

Close my account and move banks 🤣

that should an unusual and significant amount of money turned up in my main account, I’d be getting a phone call from my account manager, asking me if I knew anything about all this money, and is there anything I should have notified her about!

I get calls from the bank if there are unusual withdrawals. I dont think banks have ever worried about money going in