if the bank has duplicated my salary do i have to pay them back?

Question

it was april last year (2006)i got double the pay because of a banks error.then it wasnt until febury this year (2007) asking to pay the money back. i ignored the letter now i have just recieved another letter this month saying if i dont contact them with in the next 7 days it will be put in the hands of a debt collecting agency and they will arrest my next months salary to settle the amount.can they do this

Answer 1

Yes they can do this. The money was not yours to keep. An honest person would have alerted payroll to the mistake.

Answer 2

Get legal advice. This type of thing is never as clear cut as all the answers on here seem to suggest. When did you notice the error? How much hardship will it cause to pay the money back? Even if you do have to pay it back offer them a very small amount per month. It was their mistake and a good legal representative could get you off this or at least part of it - particularly if you play the part of a badly suffering customer. If I transfer money electronically through my bank I receive a warning saying it is done entirely at my risk and if mistakes are made the money cannot be recovered. Surely they cannot have it both ways. Also, contact your local newspaper - no bank wants bad publicity. After all, it was their mistake.

You may have to pay it back anyway, but what do you have to lose?

For everyone who's just answered that it's tough and you need to pay it back - I hope they find themselves in a similar situation some day. Let him without sin throw the first stone.

Answer 3

The unfortunate truth of the matter is YES, they Can and will legally take the money back from you.

Honestly, the bank was being really nice by sending you a letter requesting you return it - usually they send a notice that says because of an error, we have taken this money back.

consider yourself lucky it did not happen that way!

If you don't not have the means to repay the debt immediately, contact the bank right now and tell them, otherwise they could put a freeze on your account and then you'll really be in a bind.

If you choose to ignore them, not only will they freese your account, but they will alart all you other creditors and it could have a negative effect on you for years to come.

Do the right thing and do it quick, before the bank starts making decisions for you.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Although it is quite tempting to keep the financial gain of a "bookkeeping" error, it would have been in your best interest to say something when it had originally happened. All books need to be balanced out at some point, and the error WILL eventually be found, as you have recently discovered.

You kept the money that didn't belong to you, so yes, they CAN and I'm sure the WILL do whatever it takes to reclaim that money. Pay it off and get it over with before you start incurring fines or some kind of a charge. Little chance of that happening if any, but hey...play it safe.

Answer 5

Afraid so .. you would have been better to have taken that money and put it in as high an interest account you could find or paid off a credit card dept so you could pay them back if they asked for it using the card, so you paid less interest on the card for the duration. Ring Them! You had best pay them back if you can, or if you cant pay it all at once negotiate paying them back over time as most banks would prefer this to sending in dept collectors .. Good Luck

Answer 6

Yes!! It wasn't yours to begin with. You should have gave it back as soon as you knew there was an error. Unless you can prove that it wasn't an error and that it's money owed to you from the company (example: holiday pay) But it seems you admitted that it was a bank error, so you know that it wasn't your money to use.Pay The Bill come clean you don't need something as petty as this on your record.

Answer 7

Yes, they can do all that, and more. Call them, but do not be too quick to agree to a settlement, as you have a couple of concerns that need to be addressed.

Was the overpayment stated on your W-2 from them? If so, this creates a couple of issues for you, as you probably need to file amended federal and state tax returns.

If they reported this to the IRS as income, their error is NOT remedied merely by you refunding them the money. Their error will cost you the price of hiring an accountant to file those forms, or your time to do it yourself. In addition, you should insist that they agree in writing, before you pay them anything, to provide you the corrected W2's in a reasonable amount of time.

Call them, but protect yourself by raising the issue of the tax problem THEY have caused. They need to be willing to accept that responsibility.

Answer 8

yes.. i'm afraid the banks dont give out free money and they will recover any overpayments.. I'm not sure an earnings arrestment is necessary.. negotiate a repayment plan with them. if they sell your debt to a debt collecting agency they will let you pay in instalments but it can affect your credit rating if you miss payments

Answer 9

Yes, you have to pay the money back. It doesn't matter who was at fault. It was your responsibility to notify the bank as soon as you realized that you received too much money. Errors like that are almost always eventually found.

Answer 10

yes they can. sucks that it took them a yr to notice their mistake but at the same time, they did take the steps in order to correct it. best thing to do is pay back the money. and either or can continue with that bank or take your account somewhere else

Answer 11

Yes, they can. You knew at the time you shouldn't been paid twice. That is stealing and you should pay it back. Ignoring a letter is not very mature.