What would you do in this situation?

[Marseeya]

We've already made a decision, but I'm just curious what you would do in this situation -- it's a moral dilemma.

DH is working on his bachelor's degree. We pay for the classes up front, then his company reimburses the tuition. It works out okay, but sometimes it can get difficult financially if the timing of it isn't just right. With both of us being in school, money's tight.

Well, this past term, DH's company was several weeks late with the reimbursement and we're so broke. We're scraping pennies just to get by at this point and robbing Peter to pay Paul. On the last pay we expected the reimbursement and it didn't come, but we're supposed to get it on the next pay. We're late on just about every bill we owe (except rent), we owe my parents money, and I need a new computer.

Now that you've got the gist:

DH got a notice that his reimbursement has gone through for this next paycheck (next week). However, the company screwed up and paid for two classes rather than the one he claimed.

What would you do? (I'll come back later and tell you what we did/are doing.)

 

[mum4jenn]

I would either pay it back right away or put it aside so when they find their mistake (and they will) then you will have it ready and waiting for them.

 

[mrsheppo]

I would pay them back the money for the second class when he receives his check. Otherwise it could come back and bite you in the you know what later on.

 

[ducklite]

I would pay them back the money for the second class when he receives his check. Otherwise it could come back and bite you in the you know what later on.

Ditto.

Anne

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Tell them so they can have the money back.

It can present an HR issue resulting in his termination if he keeps it.

 

[mudnuri]

from the sounds of it, the way your bolding "so broke" your planning on keeping the money and not saying a word about the overpayment.

I just got my student loan the other day, and it was over by 32 bucks, I went back into the business office at school, told the woman, she said- oh its okay dont worry about it....i stood there made her void that check, and cut me another one...it will come back to bite you in the rear when you least expect it...

Brandy

 

[Marseeya]

from the sounds of it, the way your bolding "so broke" your planning on keeping the money and not saying a word about the overpayment.

I just got my student loan the other day, and it was over by 32 bucks, I went back into the business office at school, told the woman, she said- oh its okay dont worry about it....i stood there made her void that check, and cut me another one...it will come back to bite you in the rear when you least expect it...

Brandy

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

[dmslush]

Absolutely give it back. Keeping it would be considered nothing short of stealing and could result in termination and criminal charges.


If it causes a financial hardship to pay for his classes up front, why don't you have him take out student loans and then pay them back in full when he gets his money each semester from the company?

 

[mudnuri]

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!

Trust me I've been where you are...I'm just saying thats what your post sounded like.......I have been to the point where I am counting penny's to buy milk....It sucks....I refuse to go into credit card debt, so this is what happens to me now that I'm in school full time and raising the girls....Who knows, maybe if it was a 3200 screw up I'd have kept it LOL....I didnt mean to upset you....my appologies for that....

Brandy

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I do hope you post what you will be doing. I was assuming you were going to give it back.

 

[Marseeya]

Trust me I've been where you are...I'm just saying thats what your post sounded like.......I have been to the point where I am counting penny's to buy milk....It sucks....I refuse to go into credit card debt, so this is what happens to me now that I'm in school full time and raising the girls....Who knows, maybe if it was a 3200 screw up I'd have kept it LOL....I didnt mean to upset you....my appologies for that....

Brandy

No, you didn't upset me, LOL! I was kidding and trying to maintain the air of mystery.

I'm just trying to be vague about what our decision was and wanted to see how others would react in the same situation, which is why I stressed the "so broke."

 

[coolmom99]

Personally, I would give it back because I could not live with myself. Even if it doesn't bother you to keep it, you should give it back because it's theft. It sounds like it must be thousands of dollars if it's causing you to go into that much debt which means it would be an even more serious crime when you get caught. In this day an age most companies have all kinds of controls in place to catch this type of thing so it's almost guaranteed that it's just a matter of time before you'll get caught.

 

[doxdogy]

I would give it back to the company.

 

[Marseeya]

I feel like there's some gray area in what we're doing, but that's just the way it is.

We're going to go ahead and let it go through on this paycheck and tell them about it then at that point. If we tell them about it right now, the corrected amount won't even make this pay and we'll be hurting for sure. We can handle two weeks late, but four or more weeks late would be a very bad thing.

So DH is going to have the cash in hand after we get the pay, and he's going to offer it to them then and there, but also ask them if we could keep it and let it come out of his next reimbursement, which would be in January.

At any rate, it's a decision we can live with. We're not the kind of people who could just keep it outright, but at the same time we really don't want to hurt ourselves in the process. If there was any chance they could fix the error in time for us to get the money we'd just tell them now.

 

[LMC]

Well I would definately wait until it came through on the paycheck. If they start messing around with your check then they will screw it up for sure. I know they say they miss deadlines, etc but when it comes to their pockets they always find a way to fix an error in time before a payday. When it comes to your pockets, it has to wait til next pay period.

They will probably tell your DH at that point that they will back it out of his next check so they can keep a paper trail. IF he gives them the cash make sure he gets a receipt so he has proof that he paid it back!!

 

[Marseeya]

They will probably tell your DH at that point that they will back it out of his next check so they can keep a paper trail. IF he gives them the cash make sure he gets a receipt so he has proof that he paid it back!!

Good point! Another option is for us to write them a check so we could have that as proof. Taking it out of his next check would work too.

 

[nwdisgal]

I had that happen before. I pointed the mistake out right away and gave the check back.

 

[Marseeya]

I had that happen before. I pointed the mistake out right away and gave the check back.

What did you do for money if you gave the check right back?

That happened to me once before too, years ago when I worked. I had to give the whole check back and I was a single mom living off of $5 an hour. It was really crappy of the company to do that to me over their own mistake. I was fortunate, though, that my manager just gave me enough money to live off of out of the store safe with an IOU (this was a really small store, just the two of us full time + two part timers).

At any rate, we have direct deposit, so we don't have to worry about that happening.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I would call the company and see how they want to handle it. I expect they will let you keep the paycheck and then deduct it from the next.

 

[marlasmom]

I think if you speak to the school, you can make arrangements to pay the school when the employer's reimbursement comes through. At least talk to them.