What would you do if your bank makes a mistake and adds money to your account by mistake?

Question

Would you contact the bank? Would you let they figure out they make the mistake and keep the money or use it until them? What else?

Answer 1

Inform the bank. Not only is it the moral thing to do but if you use or take the money and then they found out, you could be held liable.

Answer 2

I know of someone who lost her job because of mistake like that. They bank will find out sooner or later. It turn out that the customer refused to bring back the money. The sad part of the story is that they banker who made the mistake had recently learned that she was HIV pos. She didn't tell anyone of why she had not been complete focused on ther transactions. My point is that we don't know the harm that we can cause others. Bank will get their money, except that the customer who she credit opened the accout with a foreing passport and had no SSN. She closed her accounts and fled.

Answer 3

If money was added to your account by mistake contact the bank immediately because if you don't I are stealing and will be in more trouble with the law and the bank.

Answer 4

I'm sure everyones first instinct is to not notify the bank and to use the money...but let me tell you right now that I work in the forgery department at a bank and there are errors where sometimes we give credit back to the wrong customer...it may take us a couple of days or even a week but we will eventually figure out our error and go looking for that money. If we find that you spent the money (that wasn't rightfully yours in the first place) we will still debit your account--(and yes it is legal to do so), if you do not pay the overdraft amount on your account we will end up sending you to collections and depending on the amount of the money we will take you to court to get our money back. So to sum it all up--the first instinct would be to take the money and run, but let me tell you that it will catch up to you and it is a bad choice to take money that does not rightfully belong to you. If you don't feel like notifying the bank--leave the money there! They will figure it out and take the money out again.

Answer 5

This happened to me and the wife back about 7 yrs we told the bank about the mistake they told us we was wrong we made the mistake and 1 yr later when we moved we took the money with us...it was not much just $ 60.00 but free money is free money

Answer 6

Morally, you need to give the money back. Trust me, the bank will figure out your mistake and they take the money back directly from your account. If there is not enough money in your account they will charge you an overdraft fee (may be reversed) but if you spend the money you account will be handled as if that money was never put in there.

Answer 7

If they locate the source of their error, they are going to want their money back.

I had a teller accidently put my deposit into someone else's account. That lady immediately spent the cash ($800). They forced her to take out a loan to cover the money, or risk legal action.

So just hold the money for a while. When the smoke clears......well...hold your head down in shame as you purchase that new TV.

Answer 8

Inform the bank. I am sure that if the bank made an error in their favour and removed some money out of your account you would inform them immediately. Informing them is the moral thing to do.

Answer 9

Inform them at once because when they find the error,, (which they always do) If you took the money, they'll come after you for it.

I read on a news site recently about a woman who got an error to the tune of around $1500.00. She took the money and the bank pressed charges on the woman.

Answer 10

I would call the bank. It is not your money. If you spend it and then the bank realizes the mistake, you will have to pay it back.