Someone transfers $700 into his credit card account, but bank says it needs transferrer's approval to reverse transaction

IMAGINE finding that a stranger has paid your credit card bills for you.
That was just what happened to Mr Mohd Shaharin Nordin.



And he wasn't really thrilled.

He wanted to return the $700 that had apparently been transferred into his credit card account by mistake.

So he called his bank.

But he was told that the bank needed the transferrer's consent before the transfer could be reversed.

And as the bank could not contact the other party, the money sat in Mr Mohd Shaharin's account. It was nearly a month later that he was finally told the money had been returned.

Mr Mohd Shaharin, 39, a bank manager, said he had always paid his POSB Mastercard bills by cash. He would deposit the amount using his bank's cash deposit machine every month.

It was his wife who first saw his credit card statement dated 27 Oct. She called him at his office.

She was puzzled because the statement showed that on 18 Oct, someone had transferred $700 to his account through the Internet.

Mr Mohd Shaharin's credit card spending amounted to $2,046.19 that month. But he was asked to pay only $1,344.81.

This was because of the $700 that had been credited into his account plus $1.38 that went to him as a rebate on his spending for that month.


INTERNET BANKING


Said Mr Mohd Shaharin: 'I don't have any Internet banking facilities with DBS so I was very sure that someone had credited this amount into my account by mistake.

'I immediately called up the bank to report this. They told me that they would investigate and notify me once they traced the transferrer.'

For two weeks, there was no news from the bank.

'It was close to the due date for me to pay up. I called the bank again but they said they were unable to get the transferrer,' he said.

'I was told to ignore the $700 credit and pay the full amount that I owed instead.' He did so on 15 Nov.

But he was still wondering how long the $700 was going to sit in his account.

'I was told to leave the money in my account until someone reported the error,' said Mr Mohd Shaharin.

'But what happens if no one comes forward to claim this money?'

Mr Mohd Shaharin made another call to DBS about a week later to check for updates but was told by the bank that the transferrer was still uncontactable.

Then, on 22 Nov, he read a report in The New Paper about how a DBS customer had transferred money wrongly into an account of another customer of the same bank.

It said that Mr Kenneth Phua, 33, a sales manager, had made a mistake at an ATM and transferred $1,480 to a stranger.

When he tried to get the money back, he was told by the bank that it needed the recipient's permission before the funds could be returned.

And, according to the bank, the recipient remains uncontactable. Said Mr Mohd Shaharin: 'Mr Phua was desperately trying to get his money back, but in my case, it was the reverse situation.

'I wanted to return the money not belonging to me, but I couldn't.'

Mr Mohd Shaharin then contacted The New Paper.

And on 25 Nov, two days after The New Paper contacted DBS about Mr Mohd Shaharin's case, he received a call from the bank.

'The bank informed me that they had finally contacted the other party,' he said. 'They would debit the money from my account and return it to the person.'

A DBS spokesman confirmed that the money has been returned.

We asked DBS what would happen to the money if it failed to contact the other party.

The spokesman said that was highly unlikely.

'The bank can definitely trace the other party and will try all means to contact him, whether through phone calls, e-mailing or sending letters,' said the spokesman.

The New Paper then pointed out that in Mr Phua's case, the bank has been unable to contact the other party.

The bank had nothing further to say on that.

When contacted, OCBC Bank said it would handle Mr Mohd Shaharin's situation differently.

Mr Patrick Chew, OCBC's head of delivery for group consumer financial services, said the bank will reverse the funds that had been wrongly transferred once it is alerted by a recipient.

Said Mr Chew: 'We do not wish to burden the recipient with funds that are not rightfully his. At the same time, we will endeavour to contact the transferrer.'

Mr Chew declined to elaborate on how the money is held while the bank tries to contact the transferrer. But he said that OCBC has internal processes to deal with such funds and will make sure they are accounted for.

A UOB spokesman said that when a customer receives a wrong money transfer and makes a written request for the money to be returned, the bank will contact the transferrer so that the money can be transferred back.

But the spokesman declined to elaborate on what it would do if the transferrer cannot be contacted.

Mr Mohd Shaharin said that he will not keep any money that does not belong to him.

'I do not wish to be 'forced' to keep any money not belonging to me, especially when I do not know where the money came from,' he said.