Paid off $5,000 credit card 7 weeks ago but the money never came out of my checking account

Don't be afraid, but definitely leave the money in your account!!!

It's spent money; the other bank just doesn't realize it yet.

I'd probably call the CC bank and ask them what account they think the money came from. That may be the problem: they took it from the wrong account.

EDIT: if your bank has Overdraft Protection via linked savings accounts, an idea is to move that $5100 to the savings account so that the $5100 doesn't "clutter" your checking account; when they finally come for the money, it'll get pulled from the savings account.

EDIT2: If you use ODP and they charge you for it, call and politely (but firmly) say you want it reversed because you're such a good customer. If they balk, explain the circumstances.

You made the 2 calls. I'd not touch the money in your account. For a very long time. At some point, say 3 years, you'd be all set.

I'd bet the bank catches the mistake soon, within a few months from now.

The reverse happened to one of my kids. A payment for a credit card bill that wasn't theirs was made from their bank account. They notified their bank, and worried that the account had been hacked. During the investigation a second payment was made. Only then did the bank realized that another customer had fat-fingered their 16 digit bank account number, and the credit card payment had come out of the wrong account. The money was returned.

It is possible that something similar happened in your case. You miss-entered the account number but it was still a valid number. Eventually the owner of the other account will notice.

I have no idea how much notice they will give you before pulling the money from your bank account. Therefore you should keep the money there in case they remove it before they tell you.

Generally the bank has a time limit that starts when the statement is generated. The other party has to report the strange transaction before the window closes, but if the statement is quarterly, it is possible that the clock didn't start until a few days ago.

Banks did not get rich by losing a few pounds here and there on a customer's account!

The bank will notice this problem at some point and they will rectify it by debiting the amount from your account.

Do not spend this money, instead consider £5000 as your new zero.

Given that the bank have done nothing after you contacted them, then, depending on where you live, you may get some joy by contacting your banking regulator. Your bank have made a mistake somewhere along the line and you may possibly be eligible for some compensation or at the very least an apology.

Couple of points:

• "Extra" money doesn't just appear in the bank out of thin air. The transferred money came out of somebody's account.

• Your bank can't trace the transaction without the transaction number since the transaction isn't tied to your account. (Theoretically they could search for payments to your credit card company within a date range that correspond to the exact payment amount which you know. But that would almost certainly take more data access privileges than any normal bank employee would have.)

Just calling and talking to "someone" leaves you in a vulnerable position -- no auditable trail that you tried to fix the problem. Write the credit card company explaining the error and ask for written conformation as to what information they have about the transaction. Then send that written information to your bank explaining the error again and ask them to fix the mistake.

Again the whole point here is to create an auditable record that you have tried to fix the problem.

The credit card company would at least have the transaction number for the money transfer. I'm not sure that if they would get your bank account number too. But with the transaction number then your bank could trace the account number from which the funds were taken.

Now as was suggested offset your bank balance by the $5100 and leave it there. Sooner or later someone will come looking for the money. This isn't like finding a penny on the street.