As payment systems are not infallible, it may happen that you receive an amount in your account that is not due to you. Do you have to pay it back or can you spend it? Update on the law in the matter.
Santander bank was particularly generous on Christmas. On December 25, following a technical problem, she duplicated 75,000 payments destination of employees or clients of some 2,000 professional clients, as reported by The echoes. An error of nearly 150 million euros, all the same.
Imagine: you check your accounts at the end of the month and you realize that your salary has been paid to you twice. Are you, in this case, forced to reimburse the overpayment? We asked the question Jrme Lasserre Capdeville, lecturer at the University of Strasbourg. The answer (unfortunately) is yes.
A bank that has credited accounts in error has the possibility of making a action for repayment of overpayment, explains this specialist in banking and financial law. In this case, the account agreement binding the customer and his bank allows the latter to reverse the transaction. In short, the establishment is entitled to recover directly from the account the amount wrongly paid. Exit, if the sum has already been spent, put this account in a debit position. He has 5 years to do so, limitation period in this case.
On the customer’s side, the possibilities of action are very limited. If this transfer caused damage to the beneficiary fact, that is to say the same client, he may well bring an action in civil liability so that this damage (which he will have to demonstrate) is compensated 頻, continues Jrme Lasserre Capdeville.
Bank charges : until 259 € savings thanks to our comparator
Moral: if you detect the payment into your account of a sum of money which is obviously not due to you, avoid spending it!