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Post by ethicality on Feb 17, 2015 13:23:05 GMT
Disclaimer - I am posting here under an alais for reasons that should become obvious. I am an occasional poster on a couple of p2p boards and have a proportion of my life savings in p2p investments.
About three weeks ago one of my p2p accounts was credited with an excessive amount of interest, amounting to about 60% of my holding.
I looked at it for a while, thought it must be a glitch and there would be a correction soon.
However there has been no correction in about 3 weeks and the money is still there in my account.
My ethical problem is not about the money as such, that is very clear it is not my money and have no problem handing it back.
The problem is what do I do about this:
i) nothing - wait to see how long it takes for the p2p company to notice and take it back.
ii) contact the p2p company, point out their error and suggest that they need to review their procedures.
iii) go public on the board associated with the p2p company and suggest that this level of incompetence should be worrying to other investors.
iv) go public and contact the FSA (or whoever)
v) some other course of action that I have not thought of.
I think that ethically iii) or iv) is probably correct. But this could cause problems to innocent parties who rush to disinvest from the company and hence lose out as the value of their holdings decline in a firestorm sale. I personally have not yet disinvested, but do now have serious concerns about the company's competence.
Any thoughts would be very welcome.
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shimself
Member of DD Central
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Post by shimself on Feb 17, 2015 14:28:33 GMT
Tell them privately; if the response is as it should be and convincing as to won't happen again then fine, if not then iii or iv
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Post by davee39 on Feb 17, 2015 14:54:23 GMT
Even if the error left you at a disadvantage it would be unreasonable to go public until you first contacted the company. You could ask for an explanation of how the error occurred, and make sure you have printouts of your account in case they mess up the correction.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Feb 17, 2015 14:56:12 GMT
I think your options are in exactly the right order.
You've tried 1 for long enough. It's now time to go for 2. If that doesn't get it sorted in short order, with an apology, then 3. If that still doesn't nudge them, 4 (FCA).
Is it a platform where you can see what contract/loan part/bit has apparently overpaid?
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Post by yorkshireman on Feb 17, 2015 16:08:17 GMT
Withdraw all of your money, if it’s the platform I think it is then I have already done so.
If the platform is so incompetent then tough, it’s their problem and you have done the ethical thing by flagging it up on this forum.
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webwiz
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Post by webwiz on Feb 17, 2015 20:15:56 GMT
We will all have different opinions and I don't think there is a "right" one. Personally I don't see why you can't persevere with i for a much longer period. What's the hurry?
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Post by mrclondon on Feb 17, 2015 21:28:34 GMT
At this point in the tax year I'm not sure continuing with option i is viable. Unless you are a non-tax payer and this extra won't tip you over the limit you need your p2p account to be in order on 5th April to avoid the tax statement including the error. Thats only 6 weeks away.
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Post by bracknellboy on Feb 17, 2015 21:37:22 GMT
From reading of the post, you haven't yet contacted the company. If that is true, then in my view you should be doing that first. And your priority should be to ensure that your tax statment and your account is in order. Once you have had comms from them with explanation - good or bad - that would be the time to go public.
Of course you could sell-up, withdraw the money and live with the tax statement. But bear in mind that does not preclude a future claw back/claim once the error is discovered.
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Mike
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Post by Mike on Feb 18, 2015 4:55:18 GMT
Everyone makes mistakes, somehow, even in this 'day & age' big-name banks still seem to somehow hit headlines with mistaken huge credit/debits to current accounts. I'm not sure it demonstrates much in the way of incompetence based on what you have said.
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bigfoot12
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Post by bigfoot12 on Feb 18, 2015 9:04:09 GMT
I agree with Mike, whilst it is worrying that they haven't spotted the problem, there are so many reasons it might have gone wrong. I think that you should contact the company and make them explain to you what went wrong. If you are unsatisfied, or it takes too long to get to the right person, name and shame them. |
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debeast
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Post by debeast on Feb 18, 2015 13:29:55 GMT
Do let us know though. Intrigued to see what they say. You could always redact info if needed
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