Ok, this is the strangest story you might have heard, I had 3 accounts in my Bank, 1)Penalty free CD account, 2)Money market account, and 3)Platium checking account, I closed my CD account, and put all its money in my money market account, and on the same day, I got a cashier's check out of my Money market account that used up most of the money in both accounts (money market and CD), and left less that a thousand bucks in the money market account, I didn't touch my checking account.
Well, on the same day of those transactions, I checked my online statement, and it reflected that my CD account was no lnger existent, and it also reflected the correct amount of money left in my money market account, However, the next day, I accessed my online banking, and found out that the money market account is still the same, but, my old CD account has returned back as if I never touched it, that happened a week ago, and my CD account has been there and making interest, we are talking about thousands of dollars here, a lot of money.
I have few specific questions here:
1- How long does the law afford the Bank to correct their mistake and take the money back before they become mine?
2- If I went ahead and withdrew the money out of my CD account, can the Bank bring charges against me?
3- Am I legally obligated to notify the Bank with their error?
Please please respond, many thanks

1) It will never become yours
2) Yes, and so could the government--this would be a crime sometimes called larceny
3) You are required to review your statements and report errors on your account; not doing so can expose you when it is not in your favor

WHy would they bring larceny charges against me? it is their mistake, plus, the definition of larceny is so different.
Any other input in that matter??

Since you know it is an error and not yours and you know the bank did not intend to give it to you, keeping property that does not belong to you is stealing.

Larceny means: "the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another with intent to convert them to the taker's own use."

Bank errors are not the equivalent of winning the lottery--you have to give it back. You might want to check with your attorney about this.

Do you also think that if too much comes out of the ATM that you are allowed to keep it? What about if a teller gives you back too much when you cash a check? It is an error, not a gift.

Better yet, if you made a mistake and wrote a check for $200 instead of $20 and gave it to your landscaper, wouldn't you expect him to give you back the $180???

I must agree with MAJ. You have already taken the money and do not have a right to take it again based on a bank error. You would want the bank to correct an error in your favor so you should act accordingly and do the right thing. Report the error.

I agree with MAJ. It is not your money plain and simple.

The money belongs to someone, and the bank will have to return it to them when they find the error. If you have withdrawn it - you stole it from the other customer. Even though the bank will have to make the other customer whole, they will then come to you for the funds.

There is also the chance that the error is on the part of the 3rd party online baking vendor and not showing on the bank's books at all. If it is on the banks books, they are off somewhere and will find it sooner or later.

We just got a judgement against a customer who did not think he had to pay back money he got from a bank error. He thought he should be able to keep it since we goofed. Guess the judge thought he was wrong.

This is the second thread I've read about customers wanting to keep money that is not theirs. Why do people think this is okay? I must be very naive but I just can't imagine being able to justify theft.

Confused - mistakes happen. If the bank had shorted your account by mistake and you didn't discover it for awhile, would you be OK with them just keeping the money? Banking is a two way street. Granted, these mistakes should not happen but they do and that is why banks have pretty rigorous auditing. When they find the mistake they will proceed to fix it. You could be a gentleman and call your bank and tell them about it.

Yep, do the right thing. Let them know of the error...they'll be very grateful.

But, they will find it eventually.

Confused -

1) You have an agreement (a contract) with the bank that says you get to withdraw what you put in (presumably with interest). The agreement probably includes the right for the bank to collect any overdraft from you (no matter how the overdraft was created). Once they figure out what happened, they'll simply reverse the double credit. At that point, if you've already taken the money, you'll be overdrawn and they have a contractual right to collect from you (probably plus attorney fees).

2) Even if there weren't a deposit agreement, most states would allow a claim against you for "unjust enrichment" - in other words (like in the landscaper scenario above), no one is entitled to a windfall at someone else's expense just because a mistake was made.

The time for the bank to come after you on these claims varies by state, but it is measured in years, not days or months.

Many years ago, I went through the drive through and was going to withdraw $10.00 from my savings account. The teller gave me $20.00 in cash, but only wrote down $10.00 in the passbook.

I started on my way home, but I knew it was wrong, so I went back and told the teller inside the bank of the mistake. She went and told the drive through teller who was very appreciative.

I felt good because I knew I did the right thing, even if it was only $10.00.

In a previous life I was a teller. One Friday night I was out of balance $100 (under). My boss was ok with it because this was the first time I was ever out of balance. I worried about it all weekend. When Monday morning came, one of my regular Friday customers came in and gave back the extra $100 I had given to her. She said that when she got to the grocery store on Friday evening and paid for her groceries, she realized I had given her $100 too much. By the time she got out of the grocery store, the bank was closed.

I was so happy I cried. I not only had an understanding boss, I had a customer that thought enough of me to bring back the money I had given to her in error.

Do the right thing. It will make a difference to someone, even if it is only to you.

Somewhat on-topic, here's a recent example of "doing the right thing".

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/019/region/ATM_spits_1_500_in_20s_:.shtml

So, it appears obvious that the statement that titles this Thread (guarantee you have never heard that before) is false. We've definitely heard it before, and the argument didn't work then, either!

I had a similar situation one time, and this is what happened. I called the banks attention to the error. It was not very serious, but it was still an error in my favor. I then came to a point where I needed a loan to get me through a fix, it wasn't the strongest loan they ever booked, but they did it. They may have done it anyway, but I like to think the deciding factor was that I was honest and brought the error to their attention, so they gave me the benefit. If you handle this well, maybe you will eventually get something out of it in a "round-a-bout way" You never know...

Here's an even stranger twist to this situation. My brother-in-law contacted me several years ago and said his bank had done this exact same thing. He had withdrawn the funds and received the cash, but it did not reflect on his account. He DID notify the bank of the error. They checked into it and could find nothing wrong (I don't know how). He asked me what he should do. I worked for a different bank and I instructed him to leave the money alone because they would eventually figure out their mistake. He called them again in 6 months, because the money was still there. They told him the money was his. He left the money there for over a year and still the bank had not figured out the error. After two years, the bank merged with another institution, and he kept the money. I can't figure out what the bank did, but obviously they weren't concerned about the money. It was over $1,000 too! I agree, you should notify the bank. Hopefully they can get their mistake figured out.

It might surprise you how many banks haven't figured out how to reconcile their ATM settlement accounts. I have seen some banks eventually figure it out only to write off large sums of money.

Regardless, the appropriate thing to do is to continue to try and return the money - although after a couple of years I would quit also.

OK guys, thanks for the advice, the Bank has discovered the error finally, and they withdrew the money (after few weeks of the error), well, I can't say I am happy, it was over 65,000 dollars (the down payment on my new house), thanks all

You would have used money that belongs to someone else for a downpayment on a house?? Sorry, but I don't think I could live in a house knowing that. Hopefully you aren't teaching this (non)value to a younger generation.

Better yet, what would you have done when they figured out the mistake and came calling for their money?

Quote:

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Better yet, what would you have done when they figured out the mistake and came calling for their money?

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Hit them up for an equity loan, of course!

I had two similar situations happen to me (both in my favor). After 6 yrs on a 30 year loan I went to refinance, thinking I knew the balance on the loan. To my surprise it was $5k less. A printout of the history showed a $5,000 payment on 12/31 of year 2. I told them that I'd never made any extra payments. They didn't seem to care.

Last year I purchased some furniture and put it on my MC. My statement never showed the charge. I went back to the furniture store and they claimed I didn't owe any monies and never had a dispute with MC. To date, I have not had either party contact me about the dispute.

You were honest in both cases, sometimes that's all you can do. I had a debit card transaction that didn't hit my account last year, after 3 months I talked to the organization. She told me that she wasn't aware of a problem but the debit hit my account within 2 weeks. I felt better just having said something because that at least gave them the knowledge to start looking.