What would you do if you got overpaid?

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

The night of pay, most of the staff look up their paystubs online. I looked mine up last night and noticed that I was over paid by 1500 dollars. For a moment I daydreamed about what I could do with the extra money. Ofcourse, I never had any real intention of not notifying payroll.

I showed my co-workers and to my surprise many of them advised me to not say anything. In fact, only one agreed that I was doing the right thing.

I thought things like this would be a no brainer but apparently not.

Well, I went to pay roll this am and got it taken care of. The lady working in payroll thanked me for my honestly and said eventually they do found out and it would not have looked good if I didn't say anything.

So morale of the story.... if you ever get over paid fess up. Although I don't think there is anything wrong with having a few short moments to fantasize about having money.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Congrats on doing the right and honest thing! And yes, they would have found out sooner or later and simply deducted the funds from a future paycheck. You'd be lucky if they left it at that and not sat you down for a talk.

All accounting is still based upon debits and credits. Things may be a bit faster in this computer age but sooner or later accounts must balance. That $1500 was meant to go somewhere else and sooner or later would have been missed as someone came a looking.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

Congrats on doing the right and honest thing! And yes, they would have found out sooner or later and simply deducted the funds from a future paycheck. You'd be lucky if they left it at that and not sat you down for a talk.

All accounting is still based upon debits and credits. Things may be a bit faster in this computer age but sooner or later accounts must balance. That $1500 was meant to go somewhere else and sooner or later would have been missed as someone came a looking.

I agree, which is why I'm shocked others did not. They honestly thought if it were them, they could get away with it.

[Katie71275]

I would have done the same thing and notified payroll.

[LTCNS, LPN]

Good for you! :) I would have notified HR as well. Jobs are hard to come by these days and it just wouldn't be worth it to lose my job over something that didn't belong to me in the first place.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I once got overpaid by something like that at my per diem job and before I could even figure out who to tell, they realized the error and corrected it.

Now, there was another time when I was working in the hospital where I was canceled for a shift/agreed to take PTO and they paid me as if I'd worked it. I didn't say anything then and I don't feel bad about it. This was a hospital that screwed me out of so much money that I didn't care, so they paid me for 12 hrs that I didn't work (although that barely makes up for all the unpaid overtime I worked in my time there) and then I got to keep those 12 hours of PTO and cash them out when I left the hospital.

[LiteCandles]

I had an old co-worker who got overpaid for about a year. It was about 30-50 dollars, I believe, a pay check but they wanted it back of course when they realized it. She claims she didn't know, but either way she wasn't mad when they took it back. I feel that if you know you got overpaid and you don't inform anyone then you are basically stealing from your company/employer and it is not worth it to just lie.

Congrats on doing the right thing!

[Art_Vandelay]

Take the money and run. That's what Steve Miller would do.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

If it's a mistake they find out eventually and correct the mistake. They might not notice it at a convenient time for that money to be taken back so I'd rather they correct the mistake BEFORE I've spent the money!

[DoGoodThenGo]

Just so you know, many if not all direct deposit agreements give your employer authority without asking to debit funds such as if paid in error. If you keep funds that aren't yours and worse start spending you could be in a whole lotta trouble once HR makes a withdrawal from your checking account.

As for keeping the funds suggest looking up "unjust enrichment". A lot of people have "found" money in their checking accounts that didn't belong there and started spending. When the error was discovered and the bank reversed the credit they were at best overdrawn. At worse the men in dark suits and sunglasses or the local PoPo (you know who I mean) came a calling. And no, the defense "I thought it was my money" didn't help.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I agree, which is why I'm shocked others did not. They honestly thought if it were them, they could get away with it.

WWJD?

[amoLucia]

Once American Express credited my acct with a BIG number. I reported it - I suspected some other customer didn't get his credit and would be calling about that.

Another VISA/bank card credited me with some $300. I let it ride because I knew they'd catch it eventually. And they did, some 6 months or so later. They did mail me a letter to explain.

Now I DID NOT give back the extra $10 that I once got from a MAC machine. I want one to give me a $20 bill. Not thousands of dollars - I just want a $20 once.

My sisters go to a branch bank office Mac machine outside their neighborhood that has given them an extra $20 a couple of times. Never worked for me when I tried.