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-   -   Bank closed my car loan account by mistake! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-loans-insurance/124162-bank-closed-my-car-loan-account-mistake.html)

I have a different scenario to update here and at the same time need some suggestions also from the community members on how to proceed further.

I bought Hyundai i-10 in Oct-2010 for Parents in Lucknow and financed it through Punjab National Bank. For the EMI deposit, I have linked it to my PNB savings account and EMI's were deducted from the same.Over all experience of Buying car was very good as well as the Loan processing from PNB. All the formalities were complete in 3 days flat from visiting the showroom till taking Delivery of Car.
During last month my Father went to the PNB Branch to get the Passbook updated and he came across the fact that no EMI's were deducted from my Account. When enquired with the bank for the same, my Father was requested to check with the Retail Asset Branch for more information.
Apart from my Father ,my Sister who is also a joint account holder with myself for PNB Saving account , tried contacting PNB branch to enquire on the deposition of Cash. But the response both my Father and Sister received that the information cannot be provided and it might have been someone from my Family would have deposited. We never claimed that we have deposited the money and actually we were more worried about the deposit made.
When my Father visited the branch for more information, he had been given the NOC and when he requested for depositor information, he was told that its policy of Bank not to share the details.
Some days later I received mail from PNB Retail Asset Branch attached below:


************************************************** ********
Mail from PNB

Dear Sir,


Mr. Amit Kumar Singh (one of our other car loan customer) has claimed that on 1st October 2011 he had deposited a cheque of Rs 2,00,000/- in your car loan account . Contact details of Sh. Amit Kumar Singh are mentioned below:


We are hopeful that you will look into the matter immediately and shall amicably resolve the matter at the earliest.
With regards,



Chief Manager

Retail Assets Branch
Punjab National Bank,
Navchetana Kendra,
10 Ashok Marg
Lucknow 226 001 (U.P.)
Tel: 0522 - 2288678 / 679 / 680

************************************************** ********
My reply to PNB


I replied back through email,as I am not in India currently and will be returning back by Next year only. I requested PNB to provide update on the questions below:


1. How is it possible that amount is deposited in my Car Loan account despite having unique loan Account number ?


2. If the other Party deposited cash in October-2011, why it took 9 months to realize the mistake by other party as well as Bank ?

3. I request you to kindly update me on the mistake and the responsible person.




************************************************** ********
Mail from PNB
Dear Mr. Amit,

Thanks for your reply. We clarify the points raised by you as under:

1) The amount was deposited by cheque not through cash.

2) The person of other party deposited the cheque by mistake in your car loan a/c due to similarity in the name.

3) The other party inquired about the status of his car loan a/c and it is only then the other party came to know that Rs 2,00,000/- has not been credited in his car loan a/c. Since, the cheque was not deposited through our Branch, we were not aware about the said payment. It is only when the other party visited our office in last week we came to know about the said incidence.

4) No official from the Bank side is responsible in this incidence as the cheque was deposited (in wrong a/c by mistake) directly by the other party.

5) We request you to kindly contact the other party at the earliest and resolve the issue.


With regards,

Chief Manager
Retail Assets Branch
Punjab National Bank,
Navchetana Kendra,
10 Ashok Marg
Lucknow 226 001 (U.P.)

************************************************** ********
My reply to PNB


Dear Sir/madam
Thanks for the clarification provided below. As per the details mentioned below it is very clear that this issue is due to the confusion of the Customer while depositing Cheque. Regarding the amount , we never claimed that we deposited and neither that belongs to us. I would request Bank to sort out the issue with the mentioned Customer , as we were not at all involved in the transaction. Also, we are depositing the sufficient funds for Monthly Instalments in the Saving Account with PNB for the Car loan purpose. I would prefer not to deal with the Customer in question , as this is not at all our fault. Rather, I would appreciate to see ,action taken by Bank itself. From my side, I will be honouring the agreement made between myself and the bank for the Payment of Monthly EMI's. For any further queries, you can contact me through mail communication or phone as mentioned in my Signature.

Regards

************************************************** ********
Mail from PNB

Dear Sir,

Since your car loan a/c has been closed hence we won't be able to honour the agreement made between Bank & yoursel for repayment of EMIs in your car loan a/c. Thus, we request you to contact the other party and solve the issue between both of you amicably.


With regards,

Chief Manager
Retail Assets Branch
Punjab National Bank,
Navchetana Kendra,
10 Ashok Marg
Lucknow 226 001 (U.P.)
Tel: 0522 -2288678 / 679 / 680



************************************************** ********

As I am out of India and will be coming to India in Jan-2013 only and it is very difficult for my family members to follow up the issue and hence, I have requested them to follow-up with myself for the same through email or phone. Also , I am not in favour in dealing directly with the Customer who made mistake. I would prefer to deal with Bank for any further action.
I need suggestions from T-BHP members on further action from my side.


Thanks
Amit

The only advice I can give is not to get in touch with the person that accidentally deposited the money, things can get heated and you are not even there to look after the proceedings (that might take a bad turn).

The manager has to get this resolved, I doubt they will re-initiate your loan. And you wouldn't be happy with it been cleared out like this either. Get in touch with a lawyer and understand your options legally.

Agree with Quickdraw, it is highly inappropriate for the Bank to wash its hands off and ask you to deal with the aggrieved party.

Something that I don't get here. The Manager responded as follows to your query
"2) The person of other party deposited the cheque by mistake in your car loan a/c due to similarity in the name."
Ok, the depositor got the name wrong, but how did he get your loan account number? There is no way he could know that information by himself.

Is it possible that the Bank processed this incorrectly as the names were similar? If that is the case are they not accountable for not matching both name & loan account number before crediting your loan account?

Bottom line that person needs his 2L back, and its either you or the Bank has to come into picture. Bank is washing their hands as they have already closed the account. So in my view there are only two other options

1. Ask the Bank to re-open your Loan account, i am doubtful if such a process exists at the Bank :).
2. If you have 2L already in the savings account where the EMI is getting deducted then, if you wish you can pay the other customer the 2L that he deposited. Consider this a interest free loan for 9 months.

This is a ridiculous stance by the bank. All 3 parties need to come and have the issue resolved so that the correct position is restored. Bank and 3rd party being the main 2 involved parties.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am very clear on my stance, that I would like to start any kind of in-person discussion only once I am back in India next year. I do not want to meet any other party then bank for any kind of discussion as the fault is not mine. Deposited money is not mine and bank need to rectify the issue. Regarding paying 2L to customer who made the mistake, I will do only after I am back in India and my responsibility is only for 2L and nothing more than that. That too, I will be paying to Bank only and not to Customer.

Thanks
Amit

Its the other customer, who made a mistake. Neither you nor the bank is at fault in this matter. So I am not at all surprised by the bank's stance of trying to stay away from the matter.

I would suggest, through the bank as an mediator, get into a conf call with the other party. If the other party gets aggressive/abusive, ask them to approach the police/court to get their money back. If the other party is courteous and talking sense, please help them out. Everybody makes mistakes. Don't approach the problem from the viewpoint "If it would have been my mistake, would the other party have forgiven the mistake?". Do what is right. Explore what could be a agreeable solution -e.g. you could pay amount equivalent to your EMI to the other party directly every month.

Hi aeroamit,

There is a practise where a person with lots of "black-money" does transactions with the help of a bank, so that money may be transacted through accounts and to the desired recipient. They look for "dormant" accounts and credit the huge sum temporarily into several of such "dormant" accounts and then slowly transfer them to the recipient's account or withdraws as cash.
Something similar must have happened in your case but the bank goofed up and the money ended up in your loan account. The loan department, unaware of this game, promptly closed your loan account!

Its better to let the bank deal with this rather than yourself but seek some legal help and protection as you may not know who the other person is.

I don't quite understand how you can launder money using dormant accounts. Anyone can deposit money into any account but withdrawal or transfer cannot be done without the account holder's consent. And that is why the bank is playing truant here.

I agree with the above.

However, You do have a problem on your hands. Consider the below scenarios too.

Are you good to foreclose the loan ?

a) If Yes,
- Pay back the other customer at your convenience after agreeing with him. (I am sure the car loan does not give any tax benefit.)

b) If Not,
- Try to deal with the bank. (Reinstate Loan, etc) - highly improbable
- Else, talk to the other customer and let him know that you would be depositing the monthly EMIs to him (which would have otherwise gone to your loan) - best bet (in my opinion) Agree with @SDP as below

c) An In-between approach : Pay the other customer an increased amount for a shorter period.

Do remember
i) that the bank still needs to issue the de-hypothecation documents.
ii) to get the foreclosure statement to check for any penalties the bank might have imposed (or) any over-payment that might have resulted due to the mess-up (does the bank need to pay you back ?).

In my view - the bank is legally not liable to settle this issue. But the attitude of the manager stinks.
In all other matters the bank has behaved very professionally and by the book ! I do not see any scams !

Hope this helps !

Cheers, D

I guess that is the only thing you need to ask the bank. They cant wash their hands off. As even if the other guy has the same name, how can the account number be goofed up. It is surely a mistake on the banks part.

This is definitely the bank's mistake. If the response is not warm from the bank manager, escalate the issue to the RBI Nodal Officer.

Once the loan is closed, the bank must send a loan closure note and provide an NOC to remove the RTO hypothecation.

Please at any cost, dont deal with the customer, even if you are provided with his details. Since a person has payed 2 lacs and not bothered about it for 9 months, i definitely smell something fishy.

Tell the Bank to issue a personal loan for Rs2 lacs and settle the issue with the third party. The interest on such loan should be on par with your earlier car loan.
Further if any premature closure penalty is applicable, either the Bank has to waive it or has to be met by the third party.

Car loan cannot be foreclosed just by giving a cheque for the said amount.
I have foreclosed two loans with HDFC and the procedure requires you to give an application for the foreclosure of the said loan and you have to SIGN it. I believe all banks needs some form of written and signed document for the foreclosure of any loan.

Did you give a signed application for the foreclosure of the loan? If not then bank cannot close the loan. Bank's fault.

So if the bank closed the loan based on the application and the cheque given by the third party then they did NOT verify the signature on the application against your signature proof they have with them. If they had verified it they would've noticed the mismatch. Bank's fault again.

A third party can close your loan on your behalf, for that the bank needs an authorisation letter from you authorising the the third party to close your loan. Did you give such a letter? If not no one can walk in and close your loan. If they did then that is due to the bank's lackadaisical approach. Banks fault!

If this goes to court or in front of Ombudsman and if the bank can't produce these signed documents from you then its the Bank's trouble and the onus is on the bank to resolve this case amicably.


Edit: But, if you or anyone on your behalf did give a signed loan foreclosure application to the bank then bank's stance in this dispute is correct.

I completely agree with Sankar. This is the bank's fault and not the person's who dropped off the cheque at the bank. How can the bank put that amount into another account just because the name is the same or similar? Dont they have account number written on the cheque deposit slip?

My above statement is making the assumption that the other customer had deposited the cheque along with a deposit slip and all deposit slips I have seen till date have an account number field.

My opinion the bank has to clear this mess and not you or the other customer. Can you get information from the bank as to how the cheque was deposited and whether it had a deposit slip attached?

Even in the few banks where deposit slips are not needed, the account number in which the money is being deposited needs to be written behind the cheque. If the cheque did not have the account number written then the bank had no business depositing that amount at all. This is completely the bank's fault.

Another opinion as somebody has already pointed out. Contact the other customer and tell him you will pay him 2 lakhs and not a penny more when you reutrn in January.