PayPal - Woes
 

Hey guys, so I have a situation that I would like some advice on how to deal with. I have a PayPal account along with a USAA Bank account. In February I noticed there was an extra $400.00 in my PayPal account, it was there for nearly a week. I figured it was a fluke and would go away. Well I called my dad and asked him what to do, he said to move $300.00 of it to my USAA account and leave the other $100.00 and to see what happens. Kept the money in my accounts for over a month and PayPal never sent a notice about it, or pulled it out of my account. So after a month I began spending it. Fast forward to May 6th. Over 4 months later they've noticed it's missing and want the money back. The problem is, I don't have it anymore. I'm a broke college student, it's almost like the equivalent of having a credit card I maxed out. Except they didn't say anything for 4 months. I'm planning to give them a call however I'm not quite sure what to say. I probably should not have spent the money however I did and I don't want to be scolded for that. It was $400.00 in my account.
What would you guys have done in a similar situation assuming you were a poor college student and not the wealthiest person at the time?
What would you recommend I do about the current situation?

Personally I think it's paypals fault and I'm not in the wrong. The money was their glitch and not mine. The fact that they figured it out 4 months later well I don't know how to go about solving this. James suggested I get a lawyer friend to write them a letter. Has this ever happened to anyone else before that you know of? I'm kinda flustered about the whole thing.

obviously if you have a lawyer friend you should be speaking to them but i suspect, as is in most cases you´ll end up having to pay it back. i guess if you claim you thought it was your money in the account and point to the fact that you weren´t the one who screwed up they´ll probably let you pay back in instalments. but yeah, best thing to do from the start would have been to email them for an explanation of the payment. people don´t lose track of money easily...

It didnt sound like you ever actually called Paypal and asked why there were extra funds there. It may be larceny since you knew that there was a bank error in your favor but you didnt report it. A lawyer friend might be helpful, but in all likelihood you're going to need to pay that back. Hopefully that's all you'll need to do.

Best of luck!

What would I have done when I was a starving college student? Probably exactly what you did.

Now, though, I know more about the banking system and know that there is no such thing as free money.

GG - I hate to say this but you are in the wrong here. The best that you can hope for is that Paypal will give you payment terms, but they're under no obligation to do so. Its possible that they might try to ding you for interest, but that's a long shot. If they want let you pay it off in installments, then you might want to consider borrowing it from someone else.

GG - you've already figured this out, but for anyone else in similar circumstances you should know that this isn't "your" money. There is no harm contacting the institution to alert them to the mistake. They have teams of accountants, and they will figure it out eventually and ask for repayment. And you will owe it.

0% chance of keeping this.

Think of it this way: If they had inadvertently charged your debit card or credit card a few hundred dollars, wouldn't you expect them to credit you for funds you never used?

These kinds of things happen due to human error. Miskeying one digit is all it takes, but someone else is missing those $400.

On the other hand, if the IRS inadvertently credits you a billion dollar refund, grab it and leave the country. :D

You knew the money wasn't yours yet you spent it anyway.

Sounds pretty dishonest to me - you should have to pay it back, no question.

And your Dad deserves a talking to as well for his questionable advice.

Perhaps your dad can pay them back now, then you can pay your dad back? He'll probably let you pay back without interest, and be more flexible about the payment dates.

wow, I'm surprised PayPal actually goofed up this big. I thought they were pretty solid ...

I would have spent it on pizza.

You do have to pay it back though.

yeah - whatever you do, don't tell them "I knew there was an extra $400 in my account, but what the hey! I spent it anyways..." Go with the "I don't keep track of my accounts that well and assumed it was mine" bit - probably a little more lenient on you. You're almost definitely going to have to pay up.

For some reason, the fact that this advice comes from someone with a username Highthief is amusing to me. Must be my mood. His advice is solid here though.

It's a good thing they didn't give you $500 or more. Then you'd be in grand larceny (FELONY) territory, rather than petit larceny.

I second the option that you get your father to pay it and you pay him back, as he's unlikely to charge you interest and he's the one that gave you the terrible advice to move it off to your account.

Back when online banking was newish, my dad found 25 billion listed for his account with Citibank. Mistakes happen.

Sadly he didn't get to keep it either :)

I'm afraid your actions indicate you were unsure whether you were doing the right thing and unsure you'd get away with it. Leaves you with not much of a leg to stand on.

Hopefully they'll accept their mistake as a mitigating factor and will work with you on how much and how to pay it back.

Well...the adult response seems that I have to pay the money back and I was completely wrong to spend it in the first place from you guys. I disagree. A four month gap for a goof that big is ridiculous. I used to believe PayPal was pretty solid however after this happened I'm beginning to have my doubts.
As for those people that are ridiculing my dad, I don't appreciate that in the least. He's very intelligent.
I'm going to fight not to reimburse PayPal for their mistake. Its hard to believe no one sees my side. Yes human error happens however this was beyond what a normal error should consist of. I'm done with the advice from you people...when you're a poor college student maybe you'd understand my angle a bit more.

*sigh* been there done that. i lived of $50AUD a week at one stage so i know the poor student life. how do you intend to fight? they´re going to ask for the money, then they will have the debt collectors after you. i´ve also been in this situation and it wasn´t pleasant. you can try to fight but start looking at ways to get the money together. your chances aren´t good.

GG, I am also a poor college student. I didn't spend the money when a mysterious $1000 showed up in my 5/3 bank account through a series of check deposits through a Northern Ohio 5/3 branch I had never been to. Actually, I pointed out the error to a representative of my bank and they tried investigating to no avail, but told me to leave the funds in there so that when the mistake was righted my account wouldn't be overdrawn. Six months or so later, a girl with the same name as me in a town a few hundred miles away realized that her deposits were going to the wrong account; apparently she had given her name to the teller for a deposit since she didn't have her account number and the teller didn't bother to check her address or SS# or anything, and deposited it to the wrong account. She kept that deposit ticket for the account number and continued making deposits to my account for a few months before realizing the mistake.

If you knew that the money was not yours, you should have asked or left it where it was. If your dad won't help you pay it back (and he gave you pretty bad advice on this, I agree), you'll have to find some way to do it yourself. By fighting this mistake, you may find yourself charged with larceny.

Sure we see your side. It's tempting to spend money that appears from nowhere especially when you don't have much of it. Several of us have readily admitted that we'd probably have done the same thing. Do you really think that none of the rest of us have been in the situation of not having money before?

I don't understand though why you are being so aggressive towards us when you came here asking what we think, then turned around and said that you're "done with advice" from us. If you've already decided what you wanted to do, then why ask us our opinion? With all due respect, it doesn't sound like you really wanted us to tell you what we thought... you wanted us to tell you what you thought.

Sorry hon, but your dad's advice was bad and you are culpable. Nobody has done anything here other than point these facts out and suggest that perhaps if you're properly contrite maybe the folks at Paypal will be gracious enough to work with you on fixing your error. Frankly, I think the folks here have been pretty nice about it.

I am not a nice guy.

I don't understand how this is the slightest bit difficult to grasp. You spent money that you knew wasn't yours and now you think it's unreasonable that the people whose money it was want it back? You're right to think that four months is a long time between error and correction; you should've contacted them within the same week as the error was made.

You're right. The adult response is to not spend money that isn't yours. The adult response is also not to get upset when people point out your mistake. As you're over 18 and ostensibly an adult now, presumably this shouldn't be difficult to grasp.

That's my take. I'd offer advice on how to proceed, but as you've indicated that you're not going to listen to it anyway I'll just say best of luck and continue on my merry way.

Next time don't ask if its ok that you stole money.

if your looking for validation for taking someone elses money, then sorry bubs, but u wont find it on TFP.

a 400 dollar mistake is NOT a big mistake. im a bean counter.. i should know. it may have been a simple clerical error or oversight, but thats not for you to judge. at some point in time when the accounts dont balance, an audit process will show the mistake, and is usually fixed up. but for you to say that this is more than what human error should consist of is wrong. thats not your call. and even if the mistake was so huge that it showed gross incompetance, its still no right for you to take that money.

i too was a poor college student ten years ago living on $50 AUD (back then about 30 dollars USD) but it didnt give me the right to take someone elses money. so i know what struggle meant... my father was on low wages his whole life.. we struggled financially through 20 years but we got through by not comprimising our morals.

and for the record, yes it was questionable advice.

so do yourself a favour, pay the money back which was never yours. somebody worked for that money, and id be rightly pissed if someone took my money and then claimed it as theirs.

so do the right thing and agree to pay it. if you fight it, you will inevitably end up paying more.

Sure I probably would have done exactly what you did but I would also expect that I would have to pay it back at some point. The money isn't yours and you knew it.

That said, stick to pig's version of events, "I don't keep track of my accounts". They might go easy on you.

i so totally agree...

You are not a nice guy?

Now that GG's heard it in spades, does someone have anything new to add or can I close this?

wrong is wrong, and for cryin' out loud, money just doesn't turn up out of thin air...

's ok...close it, halx..