Huge credit - where do I stand legally on this ?

[mybigtoenail]

Long story short - I have been moving store card balances around to take advantage of interest free offers. I had to reverse a balance transfer and re-do it, due to technical problems. This resulted in numerous debits and credits between the same cards (card the balance was coming from and card the balance was going to). Somewhere along the lines, something has gone amiss. The balance I owe (transferred from a different card/card provider) is showing on the card I moved it too. This is fine. The card it has come from is missing one of the debit transactions from the card provider I have xfered to. As a result, this card now shows a large credit (£2k, being the balance transfer value). This was a month ago, and the debit has still not been posted to clear the £2k credit.

1. what would happen if I took the credit and closed my account and the debit was then applied at a much later date ?
2. Is there a time limit for the company to either apply the missing debit or contact me to make payment (to make payment for the credit I have taken) ?
3. where do I stand legally on all this ?

I am hoping that the missing debit amount is never applied and I can take the credit value. I want this thread to be about where I stand legally and not morals. If I can take advantage of the cock-up, then I will.

1 - you will still owe the money
2 - yes, but from when they are aware of the situation
3 - it is illegal to steal money

you are entitled to have whatever morals you want - society's morals though reserves the right to put you in jail for theft, so ultimately, morals aside that might be your worst outcome ;)

They're going to notice at some point obv

Withdrawing the credit when you are aware it isn't a credit will also result in charges for cash withdrawal, hammer your credit rating and add interest charges as they apply from day of withdrawal. Withdrawing to put in a high interest account means you can't plead ignorance to a charge of theft and leave you more out of pocket if they just apply the debit to the account and chase you for it. Leave it alone.

Are you the same OP who happily walked away from the self scan checkout in Tesco knowing they hadn’t actually paid for over £100 worth of shopping this week?

1/10

Yep, totally jealous you’re hoping to steal money

As an accountant, they'll likely realise this month when they do their month end bank reconciliation/processes.

Are you the same poster who nicked their weekly shop from Tesco because the scanner didn't work, then got all arsey when posters pointed out it was theft?

You certain sound very similar...

It's theft if you know it isn't yours. As to if they'll treat it as theft, dunno. I guess if they come at you for it and you say oh really, I didn't realize but I'll pay you back, would you get away with it? They probably wouldn't want to get too heavy handed for something that's their mistake. So in that case you could spend from it, for groceries and the like over a few months, and every time you spend put cash into an instant access savings account so that you've got the money ready to hand if they ask for it back.

Taking the credit balance refund is likely what will bring their attention to it, as the account won't balance

I don't blame you for getting your hopes up, OP. I think we've both played too much Monopoly, that "Bank error in your favour" card was always such an unexpected bonus!

I'm CIMA. I work for a worldwide global company. We have a very large level of materiality. The card company, for whom I have the credit balance with, will also have a large materiality level too. I'm kind of hoping the imbalance gets lost, as there are so many postings within their organisation and the value (£2K) is immaterial in their financial statements.

Whether it is material to the card company or not does not, of course, affect the legal position. Holding on to this money is a criminal offence under section 22A of the Theft Act.

Really wouldn't risk it if you're qualified. Not worth the risk of getting struck off, surely?

Also might be symptomatic of a wider system issue where it all gets picked up!
I phoned a bar last week where I realised my card hadn't gone through and made the payment on another one.

You'd risk your job for two thousand?

My sister works for ACT and they fucking love people like you who are dumb enough to think you're smart enough to game the system.

How does morality relate to fiat credit from a large corporation?

I'd say not at all personally.

I had a similar scenario where I had a very small sum of someone else's money credited to my credit card. I had a zero balance on the card and just left it there out of curiosity. The bank contacted me over 2yrs later to reallocate it to the correct account.

This

you’re CIMA so you know full well you can lose that for a fraud conviction. Id also hope that being qualified would mean you have the intelligence to see that risk/reward isn’t worth it.

there’s isn’t a CIMA module on morality…

theft has the intention to deprieve a persons or persons of something
if a small sum say £40 was in your bank account from an unknown source and you had only quickly glanced at bank statement and never realised it was not one of your friends or family sending a gift it is high unlikely you could be prosecuted for theft due to tiny banking error of a small sum though you still have to return the £40 however being credited with your wages twice or a large sum like £2000 it is more difficult to say you were unaware

if someone dropped their purse near you and picked up what they thought were all the coins and then when you got home you found a pound coin had landed in your pushchair you are not a thief but if they had said i'm still missing a few pounds could you check whether they fell in the pushchair then you should check not run

Why feed the troll?

They have 6 years to chase you for it, and given you’ve posted specific amounts and your job title it wouldn’t be too hard for someone to dig through your posting history (and other online signatures) to work out more information about you.

Golden rule of fraud - if you’re stupid enough to do it, don’t be too stupid and effectively gloat about it on a forum!

Six years is the time limit for an ordinary debt. The OP would have committed a crime if she keeps the money. The credit card provider can therefore use Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Civil recovery of the proceeds etc. of unlawful conduct) to get the money back. The limit for that is 20 years.

Lol, as if you're really CIMA and willing to put your career at risk for 2k.