The day I ‘found’ £328,000
In today’s G2 supplement in the “Guardian”, there is an article about how journalist Leo Benedictus found that £250,000 was accidentally paid into his bank account. I can beat that. I once received a bank statement that included two payments into my account that were totally unknown to me: one for £3,246.10 and the other for £324,610.00 making a total of £327,856.10.
Now Leo Benedictus discovered his windfall when he checked his online account. My experience preceded the arrival of the Internet (I know that younger readers will find it hard to believe that there once was a time when there was no Net) and the amazing news was delivered in a printed statement through the mail (younger readers may like to know that we once had personal items of mail delivered twice a day) from my then bank Barclays (I withdrew from Barclays in protest at its investment in apartheid South Africa).
So when did this happen? It was on 21 November 1980. Two points are relevant about the date. First, although it was over three decades ago, I thought the experience was so bizarre that to this day I have kept that particular bank statement and I revisited it today for this blog posting. Second, I reckon that inflation over the past 31 years would take the mistaken payment to me to a value in today’s terms of over half a million pounds which would be double the payment to our “Guardian” correspondent.
What did I do about the overpayment? Either I skipped the country and led a life of luxury on the Costa del Sol or I immediately telephoned my bank and arranged repayment. You guess which one.
January 11th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Wow, I think I might “not have noticed” it for a while, and whils not spent any, let the interest accrue and then noticed 6 months later!
January 12th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
wow, you only got back from luxury overseas now? that is how long can half a million last…
January 16th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Wow, that would’ve been more like 3 million in today’s money? Had you told the press about it, we’d have read it in BBC archives 🙂
January 16th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Utterly preposterous story! Do you honestly expect us to believe there was a time before the internet? You’ll be saying next there were only 3 television channels; petrol cost 28p a litre; and you couldn’t get a Starbucks coffee. Pull the other one, matey.