[s@tan2s@int]

Mysterious credit in my wife's Citibank account
Hi all. Hope you all can help me with a weird situation with Citibank, me and my wife are dealing with.
Today Morning my wife happened to check her Citibank savings account and found that there are 2 different credits from State Bank Of India, Bangalore Branch amounting to Rs 48000. We were quite surprised as we were not expecting this kind of generous donation from anyone. Called up Citibank to check the source of the fund and the representative had no clue where the funds have come from.

My assumption is, wifey was working for an MNC in Hyderabad for 3 years, she quit the organization in 2007 Dec and applied for a complete PF withdrawal some 6 months back. I am assuming that this is her PF savings, but don’t expect the amount to be that high. Also was told that PF takes it own sweet time to be refunded. Approached the payroll desk at the ex-office and even they have no clue regarding the credit.

My question is.. How do I determine the creditor of both these cheque's ? Is it a case of some mistaken identity or a funds transfer issue ? Should we wait to see if the amount is debited back or withdraw the amount before the bank decided to debit it back ?
Please help !!

[greenh0rn]

This is most likely PF money. It can be larger than expected due to interests etc- I've myself been surprised twice. The only thing worth investigating is why Bangalore branch, why not Hyderabad.

[akhilesh51]

Just enjoy !

Legally, your bank or any other bank can not hold against you for spending the money away nor can they forcefully transfer back the amount.

BTW, did you plan to buy lottery ticket today, coz this seems to be a very lucky day !

[vivekiny2k]

or wait till CBI knocks on the door, when they see 48000 deducted from an underworld don on the same the day and before a local businessman was killed

on a serious note, company contribution to the Pf can sometime be ingnored in the calculation, plus interest etc.

[condor]

Check your next statement for details.

If it was a wrong credit, you can be sure they'll reverse it faster than they gave it.

[ravi@64bhp]

I am sure it is PF money. Two credits definitely proves it. With interest, you may get more than you expected, or your calculations were wrong.

[s@tan2s@int]

Originally Posted by greenh0rn

This is most likely PF money. It can be larger than expected due to interests etc- I've myself been surprised twice. The only thing worth investigating is why Bangalore branch, why not Hyderabad.

I guess the reason it shows "Bangalore branch' is because the head office of this company is based at bangalore and the earlier PF statements that she got also were from banglore PF office.

In case I withdraw the amount, will I be asked to pay the amount back in case of incorrect credit ??

[johnjacob]

Similar thing happened to me a few months back. In fact, it is a crazy coincidence - I also have a Citibank account, the amount credited was around Rs. 48K and the money came from SBI Doorvaninagar (if I remember right).

I had left my job a year back and am currently in the UK doing my masters. My PF had already been credited (within two months after I resigned - it gets credited quicker if you tell them you are leaving the country and show them your visa). Anyways, I called Citibank and they told me "it is either PF credit or income tax refund". I hadn't claimed any income tax refunds last year, so it must be some additional component of the PF that wasn't credited earlier.

[rageshgr]

It could be PF money. A Sample calc amounting to roughly the amount said by you.

Basic Pay: 5400
Individual Contrib: 12.5% BP = 675
Company Contrib: 12.5% BP = 675
For 36 months, PF = 1350*36 = Rs. 48600

So compare with your wife's income and you will see if its the PF.

Note: I just gave a sample scenario. Your company policies might vary. I have ignored any interests.

But, then you said the ex-company did not have any clue. I hope you talked with the right people, I mean the finance/payroll team. I mean may be they have another division or something.

[WanderNomad]

What everyone is ignoring is the mode of transfer. Is it an ECS transfer or by cheque? If ECS had you given the account details to your previous organisation or PF department?

I doubt its PF, looks like a case of wrong account number (which happens to be your account number) on someone's cheque.

[sudharma]

Originally Posted by WanderNomad

What everyone is ignoring is the mode of transfer. Is it an ECS transfer or by cheque? If ECS had you given the account details to your previous organisation or PF department?

I doubt its PF, looks like a case of wrong account number (which happens to be your account number) on someone's cheque.

With the stingent restrictions in place to detect illegal money transfers and money laundering, The Bank will have the details of the transfer. The Bank should know where and how the money was transfered. If they say they don't know, that's rubbish.

Please check with any other Bank Managers you may know.

[Guna]

It could be income tax refund

[pjbiju]

When your wife filled for the PF amount refund, did she give details of your Citi Bank account for directly crediting the amount to that account? If not, they would not directly credit that amount to your wife's account. You could get the transaction details and call up/email SBI branch and they should be able to give you the details. You can also get those details from the PF office by going there or by filing an application under RTI which should give you all the details you require.

I have had such credits (somebody else's salary) and of course the bank debited that amount a few days later.

[dkamath]

Suggesting you to park the fund in your savings account, and not do anything with it.
The same had happened with my colleague's Suvidha account. An amount of Rs.10K got in there, with the debit happening from some town in Andhra Pradesh. The bank couldn't help much with regards to source of the fund. It stayed put that way for about 2 months or so, and was then reverted.
The bank reserves the right to debit back the amount from your account, when the party that deposited it contests on the same. This can be a typo error either by the person that deposited it, or by the banking staff.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by sudharma

With the stingent restrictions in place to detect illegal money transfers and money laundering, The Bank will have the details of the transfer. The Bank should know where and how the money was transfered. If they say they don't know, that's rubbish.

Please check with any other Bank Managers you may know.

+1 to this view

did you check with the citi bank branch where your wife's account is located. they would have all the details of the transactions.
some time if you check in some other branch, they may not have details expect the one entered in the system.