Bank customers are being warned that they are unlikely to be able to keep money credited to their account in error.
About 100 people fall victim to funding errors a year and the Financial Ombudsman highlighted in the statement that only a few rulings have been made in history that allowed the customers to keep the cash.
The usual scenario for complaints is banks crediting accounts with money and then chasing customers for repayment, and although the customer may argue that they should keep the money this is usually no the end result.
Chief Financial Ombudsman Natalie Ceeney commented:
"In the board game Monopoly, it is good news if you get a card telling you that the bank has made an error in your favour.But in real life, things are different.
Adding:
"When dealing with complaints about mis-applied credit, we generally take the view that consumers are required to return any money paid to them by mistake."
An example used by the BBC was of a case where a customer had transferred £1,000 into an account and the bank had accidently duplicated the transaction putting £2,000.
The customer then refused to pay back the money when prompted by the bank arguing that it was the banks mistake but the customer was made to pay the amount back in 10 monthly payments,
This issue could have massive implications for businesses who deal with regular money transfers or payments and may mistake the mistake for another payment.
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