Telco holding on to $13k overpayment

I pay most of my bills through Internet banking, which is environmentally friendly.

On May 31, I accidentally keyed in $13,873 while paying my SingTel bill of $138.73 through i-banking.

After realising the mistake, I called SingTel immediately to ask for a refund of the excess payment, but the customer service officer said the telco's practice was to keep the excess amount as credit to offset future payments.

I explained to her that the amount was too much to be left with SingTel, and she assured me that it would be refunded in two to three weeks.

One month has passed and I have yet to receive the refund.

Does SingTel have the right to hold on to a large sum of money that is accidentally paid by customers?

Can the authorities assist me in getting the excess payment back from SingTel?

Chua Teo Ngee

This article was first published on July 1, 2014.
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