Lisa, a Mail & Guardian employee, is facing a long court battle to try to recover R82 000 paid via internet banking into the wrong bank account. <\/p>\n
It is one of those easy-to-make mistakes – she clicked on the wrong beneficiary. It could just as easily have been a digit entered incorrectly. In this case the incorrect beneficiary, a manufacturer of blinds, has spent the money and is in serious debt. Lisa must take her fight to the commercial crimes court.<\/p>\n
Internet banking is simpler, faster and cheaper, but it is risky: the bank carries no responsibility if an incorrect payment is made.<\/p>\n
If you pay money into the wrong account, your bank can request for the money to be returned. If the recipient refuses or is unable to pay, the fight to get your cash back is yours alone.<\/p>\n
The first step would be to lay a charge of ‘unlawful enrichment’ with the police. The threat of a criminal charge may be enough motivation for the recipient to cough up, but if he or she has spent the money you may have to go to court to attach assets.<\/p>\n
If the disputed amount is relatively small – about R3 000 or less – the recipient may decide it will not be worth your while to fight this in court and hope to get away with it.<\/p>\n
The Ombudsman for Banking Services, advocate Clive Pillay, says that once the money is in the recipient’s account he or she is the owner of that money. The recipient’s bank is not able to withdraw the money without a mandate from its client. It comes down to liability and the bank cannot know categorically whether the payment was made in error. It may, for example, be a dispute over service rendered and the payer is using an incorrect payment as an excuse to get money refunded.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is that although your bank can assist you to lodge a claim, if a customer refuses to give permission for his or her account to be debited for the amount, the bank cannot get involved and the two customers must resolve the dispute.<\/p>\n
Moreover a bank will supply its client’s details to a third party only once the client has given it permission to do so. And the bank would be able to supply only the contact details it has on record, so hope that the recipient’s details are up to date.<\/p>\n
Wrong payment? Now what?<\/strong><\/p>\n Knowing what course to take and acting quickly can improve your chances of getting your money back. Unfortunately in Lisa’s case neither he bank nor the manufacturer’s bank took steps to put her funds on hold pending the resolution of the dispute.<\/p>\n Act quickly<\/strong><\/p>\n If you realize the mistake immediately there may still be time for your bank to recall the transaction before it goes through the system, although you probably only have a few hours. Ombudsman for Banking Service Clive Pillay says that although South African enjoy the benefits of real-time transactions it is difficult to stop a transaction going through.<\/p>\n Contact the recipient<\/strong><\/p>\n If you know the recipient of the funds, banks recommend that you contact him or her and request the funds to be repaid. FNB says this is the quickest and most cost-effective means of obtaining a refund for incorrect payment.<\/p>\n Fill in a reversal form<\/strong><\/p>\n If you do not have a relationship with the recipient you must complete a reversal form, detailing the incorrect payment, with a waiver and indemnity disclaimer. FNB says there is a charge for this service and it can take up to five working days to process. If you know the recipient but have a bad feeling about getting your money back, fill in a reversal form so that the recipient’s bank can keep track of the funds and inform your bank if they are withdrawn. The ombudsman says you can ask for the disputed funds to be put on hold or ‘quarantined’.<\/p>\n If the recipient refuses<\/strong><\/p>\n If the recipient does not give his or her bank permission to reverse the payment, you will be advised of this.<\/p>\n The ombudsman recommends that you send a letter to the recipient stating that he or she has three days to refund the money before you lay a charge with the police. With luck this will be strong enough action to force the recipient to comply.<\/p>\n The ombudsman says that if the recipient claims he or she does not have the money as it went into an overdraft, the recipient can and must make use of that facility to repay the funds.<\/p>\n If the recipient has spent the money, you will have to go to the small claims court of commercial crimes court to attach assets.<\/p>\n