Bank Error - What Are My Rights?

Zak Flaps

Hi. Have a joint account in the BOI.
Got a letter from them this morning claiming that a cheque lodged to our account back in March 2009 for €3000, was supposed to be €300, but the bank had made an error. They want a €2700 refund.
There is about €30 left in our account. We can't afford to pay this back.

It was a mistake by the bank.
What are our rights here?

Zak.

iMax

Over 18 months to discover a mistake like that, no wonder they're shagged.

If you knew, then you owe it to them, however, if it was me, I'd withdraw the €30 & open an account with Ulster Bank or another & never use BOI again.

Zak Flaps

iMax wrote: »

Over 18 months to discover a mistake like that, no wonder they're shagged.

If you knew, then you owe it to them, however, if it was me, I'd withdraw the €30 & open an account with Ulster Bank or another & never use BOI again.

The bank themselves didn't discover the mistake, it was the customer who issued the cheque. They had to notify the bank to point it out.

Didn't know to be honest and the money has already been spent.

Have a separate account myself with BOI. Could they chase me for the cash there?

iMax

It's still taken the cheque issuer almost two years to notice the mistake, has to be your own judgement. You could offer to repay @ x amount per week.

I'd personally still be closing the BOI accounts

dotsman

I think the main question here is "did you not notice 3,000 being wrongly lodged to your account instead of the 300 at the time"? If so, did you notify the bank/issuer? If so, what action did they take?

With regards the legal standpoint, it's a bit murky. Clearly the money is not yours and you should never have spent it and therefore owe it back. On the other hand, the fact that it has taken 18 months to discover the error would probably see a court be lenient with you and allow you a decent amount of time to repay.

Would be interest to hear from a solicitor/barrister etc who has dealt with a similar situation and how it played out.

cazzak79

try the ombusman

dotsman

cazzak79 wrote: »

try the ombusman

The ombudsman is for dealing with complaints from a customer who has already exhausted the financial institutes's internal complaint procedures.

The OP is looking for information regarding their rights in the given situation.

unclebill98

Zak Flaps wrote: »

Hi. Have a joint account in the BOI.
Got a letter from them this morning claiming that a cheque lodged to our account back in March 2009 for €3000, was supposed to be €300, but the bank had made an error. They want a €2700 refund.
There is about €30 left in our account. We can't afford to pay this back.

It was a mistake by the bank.
What are our rights here?

Zak.

Zak Flaps wrote: »

The bank themselves didn't discover the mistake, it was the customer who issued the cheque. They had to notify the bank to point it out.

Didn't know to be honest and the money has already been spent.

Have a separate account myself with BOI. Could they chase me for the cash there?

I agree with others. You owe the funds. Paying it back depends on you.
They can just debit your accounts the amount and proceed to pursue you for the outstanding amount.

As for your other account, yes they can use the funds there to clear your debt. In the end of the day why would a bank give you a working account if you owe money.

dotsman wrote: »

The ombudsman is for dealing with complaints from a customer who has already exhausted the financial institutes's internal complaint procedures.

The OP is looking for information regarding their rights in the given situation.

Correct. If you feel unhappy then complain and follow BOI complaints process till you get a final response from BOI. If your unhappy with this then and only then can you proceed to the Ombudsman.

As for my 2 cents, agree to pay back only what you can afford and maybe ask the bank to take some of the hit. Maybe a chat with your branch manger can get you the outcome you want.

NuMarvel

I'm inclined to agree with others that strictly speaking you do owe the money and do need to pay it back. However, if I were you, I'd insist on a certain amount per month instead of a lump sum payment. Also insist that you are not liable for any interest paid to you or owed to anyone else.

Before all that though, verify for yourself that this amount was lodged in March 2009. If you still have them, check your statements or check your on-line banking for that timeframe.

donnacha

How could you not notice the difference when a €300 cheque being lodged gets credited at €3000 :eek::eek::eek:

That said there has to be some liability on the banks side here. It would be interesting to know how long the cheque issuer has been chasing this for. I assume they should have got their money back by now.

jor el

donnacha wrote: »

It would be interesting to know how long the cheque issuer has been chasing this for.

Indeed, the issuer could have been chasing this since the mistake happened, and it's taken this long for the bank to trace it to the recipient.

In the end, you spent money that wasn't yours, so now you have to pay it back. If you close your account and run away, they can chase you through the courts for the money, so that's not even an option. €2700 is a significant amount, and it would be worth the cost of court action to pursue, so I'd expect the bank to not let this go.

Contact the bank back, and try to arrange a repayment plan.

Matt Bauer

Perhaps you can afford to pay back 25 euro a week or something like that? You might be able to work something out with BoI.

Zak Flaps

there was a lot of activity with the account the time of the lodgement, so it was actually easy for us to miss the error...
will contact the bank this week, and ask them can we pay back in monthly installments...thanks for the advice guys...

The Rooster

jor el wrote: »

If you close your account and run away, they can chase you through the courts for the money, so that's not even an option. €2700 is a significant amount, and it would be worth the cost of court action to pursue, so I'd expect the bank to not let this go.

Contact the bank back, and try to arrange a repayment plan.

You think a bank would incur solicitiors fees, barristers fees and courts fees to chase €2,700 that they lost from their own mistake 18 months ago?

Some might, some wouldnt, I suppose.

BrianD

The Rooster wrote: »

You think a bank would incur solicitiors fees, barristers fees and courts fees to chase €2,700 that they lost from their own mistake 18 months ago?

Some might, some wouldnt, I suppose.

Yes they would. Most have individual departments to do this or retain law firms. The more cases the merrier - justifies their existence. As recent events has shown, it's often easier to chase the little guys rather than the big guys.

kaiser sauze

NuMarvel wrote: »

I'm inclined to agree with others that strictly speaking you do owe the money and do need to pay it back. However, if I were you, I'd insist on a certain amount per month instead of a lump sum payment. Also insist that you are not liable for any interest paid to you or owed to anyone else.

Before all that though, verify for yourself that this amount was lodged in March 2009. If you still have them, check your statements or check your on-line banking for that timeframe.

+1

Make them an offer of a monthly payment, do not budge and tell them to see you in court if they insist on a lump sum repayment. This is the banks error, not yours. A judge will only make an order for a lump sum repayment if you have the means.

Also, If I were you, I would clear out all your BoI accounts now and establish day-to-day business with another bank. While your money sits in BoI, they can raid it on a whim and may even go as far as intercepting payments into the account in future.

Do not allow yourself to be left short like this.

BrianD

kaiser sauze wrote: »

+1

Make them an offer of a monthly payment, do not budge and tell them to see you in court if they insist on a lump sum repayment. This is the banks error, not yours. A judge will only make an order for a lump sum repayment if you have the means.

Also, If I were you, I would clear out all your BoI accounts now and establish day-to-day business with another bank. While your money sits in BoI, they can raid it on a whim and may even go as far as intercepting payments into the account in future.

Do not allow yourself to be left short like this.

But surely it is the responsibility of the customer to check their account. If the error was the other way they wouldn't be long notifying the bank.

kaiser sauze

BrianD wrote: »

But surely it is the responsibility of the customer to check their account. If the error was the other way they wouldn't be long notifying the bank.

Read the OP, the bank have already admitted their error.