<prompt> Human: Hey all - im just a little bit reeling from something my bank did without my consent, and without notifying me in advance. Im in canada, if that helps. is this really alright?So - a little backstory: a year and a bit ago, during tax season, a completely random stranger accidentally filled out their direct deposit bank transfer information wrong. The CRA didnt catch it, and the bank didnt catch it, but apparently the account they accidentally filled out was my account . over the next year i was accidentally receiving their incremental monthly tax rebates. I didnt notice at the time - after all, i was supposed to be getting rebates too, and the transfers were simply labeled as generic CRA tax rebate transfers. they were all individually under 100 so it didnt raise huge flags if id suddenly obtained like 2000 or something i would have payed closer attention. It all seemed right at the time, and given that i was job hunting and having a really rough year, double-checking tax rebate amounts was not high on my priority list. The government knew what it was doing... or so i thought.Fast forward to a month or two ago. i get a call from a bank branch that isnt my branch, telling me that theres been a mistake. One of their clients after over a year of waiting is suddenly curious why they never got their rebate. They finally realize the error, so theyre calling me to let me know about the mistake, and that i received a bunch of money - about 1600 in all by the end of things - by accident. I need to pay it back.Needless to say, i needed to sit down. 1600 was quite a bit more than i could afford at the time... it may not be much to some of you, but im a young professional in a shit economy. its barely possible. Worse, apparently the government was demanding it back in lump sums. I was a little shocked... obviously, i had to repay it. It was never my money. But it wasnt my mistake, and it was given to me in tiny increments, during a period of time where every cent of mine was being used to potential. Its not like i was saving it up in a vacation pool. It seemed completely unreasonable to suddenly demand a large lump sum as a surprise repayment... budgeting doesnt work that way. A payment plan or incremental repayment... sure. But lump sums were out of the question.So im in discussions with bank personnel. I emphasize that lump sums are out of the question. Im paid monthly, so i do get my money in large temporary instalments, but those go to things like rent and food. At best, i could see repaying 250 a month, and that was being generous. we didnt reach a conclusion, and i said id look into my finances, but we left it hanging like that. they say theyll discuss things with the cra. i expected a follow-up call, but it never came. i put it on the to do list. time passes.In the meantime, as a buffer, ive been putting money into a savings account. its not a lot, but i wanted a little stash of money for a rainy day, so i have cold cash if theres a hurry, not wanting to just rely on visa. I still assume there will be a phone call to discuss some kind of payment plan. Well, did it f-ing rain.i open my account today to see that a branch to branch transfer has cleaned out my savings account. No call. No email. No snail mail. No contact, no hint, no consent, no anything. The branch simply withdrew virtually everything from the account in a lump sum.I call the bank, and its a done deal. wasnt my money they said. Its payment for a transfer error. Government wanted its money. F..k.I know its money owing. I know i have to pay it back. But you cant just suddenly siphon over a grand out of someone without telling them beforehand. You cant just throw out financial surprises like that. Dont you need consent for money transfers? Money affects peoples lives. Its the difference between rent or no rent. Its the difference between stable living and chaos. And when youre pretty close to the bottom of the totem pole, these kinds of numbers hurt.Or maybe you can just do this kind of thing. Hence the question. Thanks RBC, youre a real sweetheart of a bank.Assistant: The bank is only responding to the government ordering the bank to return money that was put into the wrong account. Any bank will comply with a government order so dont blame the bank.Simple fact is that while it sucks, it is your responsibility to know when mistakes are made in your bank account and the government can demand the money back immediately. Human: what a crazy system. so the the government can make over a year of incremental mistakes and then expect an immediate 100 repayment then?  <response>: Yep 