Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Utah

Re: bank error in my favor

Very good question. For a fee, I'd try to find the answer for you ... it's probably been decided in one court or another under UCC laws, though maybe not in your jurisdiction. The problem is that there may not be any such timeframe, because there are two types of law, "legal" and equitable, and under equity there is a principle called "unjust enrichment" (kind of like a windfall) where you generally can't get to keep something you weren't entitled to and didn't somehow buy or pay for.

In contract law, there's a principle called [ reasonable ] reliance which binds a contract, and some might think you should thus go buy something with the money to establish reliance, but you actually knew the money wasn't yours when you got it (or should have realized it, it could be argued), and that makes your reliance unreasonable.

If it's a sizeable amount, put it into a separate account that you do not touch, pretend it's not there, DO NOT SPEND THE INTEREST IT EARNS, and go about building yourself a retirement savings account as if this weren't there; in other words, don't count on it. If they ever come back to claim it from you, they'll be asking for interest, too. But they shouldn't get away with demanding from you more interest than their account paid to you!!! (The law typically provides 12% / year interest even though you can't earn that, but if a bank pays less and the bank themselves try to get you to pay the greater amount, they'd have some egg-splainin' to do.

After 6 years (typical contract statute of limitations) or 7 years (a recordkeeping sort of statute of limitations because tax returns are rarely questioned after that!), I personally would feel safe with the money.

Re: bank error in my favor

By the way, I don't think the "60 days" rule you cited is perfectly accurate. It can definitely be less in certain circumstances. Really, you have to review your statements within a reasonable time after they are sent to you, say, perhaps a week, and object soon thereafter if you see an error.