Bank say they put money into wrong account (mine!)

I had a strange phonecall from Halifax last week.... nice girl on the phone asking me about a transaction made in my account a few months ago.... eventually got round to actually saying that there'd been some confusion with my account and they'd put some money into my account by mistake around the time I was closing my account.

I never thought there was a mistake as they had made the previous transaction so complicated that I just presumed they knew what they were doing. I had a child saver account which they would manually empty into an acorn account and when I wanted to close them i had to transfer everything into one account, close the first one and then close the second one after.... big rigmarole.

Now they contact me and only at the end of the phonecall does the girl actually say the words - while laughing - 'God you must think this is an awful strange phonecall to get - somebody at the end of the phone telling you that you owe us money.' That was the first time she actually metioned that I owe them money, which completely shocked me. She said she'd send me out documentation to highlight it - all I got in the post today was a statement which shows 2 payments in - they now say that the person whose money it is has only just noticed and now wants it back...

I presume they're correct now and I have to pay them. My real quesiton here is if I don't have the cash to hand - will they take payment in installments or what should I do?

Bit annoyed about this really, their mistake and now I've a headache because of them!

I'd suggest you should always be a bit suspicious about unexpected phone calls suggesting you have to pay out money - have you verified this back with your branch of Halifax?

kelbell said:

... I presume they're correct ...

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+1 with Thirsty above. I would make no such leap of faith.

There is no need to be suspicious at all.

Look at your bank statements. Look at the lodgements. Are they yours or not? If they are not, they belong to someone else and you should return them.

Brendan

have to go with Brendan here, once you have verified that the money is not yours and that you are indeed dealing with halifax you should return the money. They may however depending on the amount owed be willing to accept a monthly payment as happened in my wifes case.

Thirsty said:

I'd suggest you should always be a bit suspicious about unexpected phone calls suggesting you have to pay out money - have you verified this back with your branch of Halifax?

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my branch is closed now, so I can't do this. Where should I call now that Halifax have shut down?

Thanks for the help though, there was never a manual payment into the account and it's because of all their fiddling around moving money around that has me confused... I'll try to dig up another other documents tonight, hopefully I'll find something that will jog my memory.

I would do nothing just yet. Wait and see if they write out outlining the situation , dont go on what was said in a phone call , its their mistake after all , let them come looking for it and if you agree that an error was made by them then pay back what you can afford and when you can afford it.

I agree that you need to investigate this in detail, so you are happy that a mistake was made. When they come back to you about this, you need to be prepared.

Halifax retail branches have closed down, but the centre in Dundalk will be open, to the end of the year, so if you do feel a need to talk to them, you can call them.