icesave have lost my parents 6k by direct debit urgent help needed

chardonnay_2 · 20 April 2007 at 8:12PM

1. parents nominated their cahoot account for d/d per icesave's instructions

2. parents added an extra 6 making the account number too long

3. parents requested transfer by d/d (system icesave use) to their cahoot account of £6000 at the end of march

4. cahoot couldn't accept it as it was a digit longer than their accounts

5. money has left parents icesave account end of march and has not reached their cahoot account.

6. icesave say cahoot have the funds - cahoot say they don't but will investigate when they receive a trace from icesave

7. icesave say the results of the trace show When incorrect account number has reached an advisor at icesave, the advisor, realising that the account number was too long, has transposed a number from the account number to another cahoot sort code making the account number the right length

8. cahoot say this new sort code is for their credit cards but the new account number is not for any of their accounts so they have still not had the funds

9. icesave are following their complaints procedure and say they will send parents a letter by 20/4/07 - letter did not arrive

10. parents demand letter is sent special delivery, including a copy of the trace done by icesave.

11. icesave are now denying point 7.

12. icesave they are going to work with cahoot to try to sort it. they say that their financial dept state that the direct debit guarantee only covers inbound payments not outgoing payments!

any help greatly appreciated, they have been lied to, told conflicting information, not been allowed to speak to managers. told that there is no complaints officer although their website states you should write to this person if you have a complaint.

AnW'sMum · 20 April 2007 at 8:35PM

mmmmm what a mess

When money is sent for the credit of an account with another bank provided the right sort code and account number are quoted it will go straight through. If as in your case something is misquoted it will end up in a suspense account until either the correct recipient account can be identified or the payment is returned to the originator.

On the assumption that the sort code was a valid cahoot then the monies should at least have been applied to a suspense account. I would have then expected them to either apply the funds or return them to icesave by close of business the same day.

I would presume therefore that it has been returned to icesave (where it may have gone into one of their suspense accounts!) as banks don't like stray unapplied amounts of money hanging around.

As to tracing payment that has to begin at icesave's end ie the account the funds came from and proceed from there. This is not an unusual situation and should be fairly easy to resolve. Just make sure you have written down dates (and times if poss for recorded phone calls) and names of those you have spoken to so that you can pursue a complaint with icesave.

Good luck

DawnW · 20 April 2007 at 10:27PM

I had a somewhat similar situation a couple of years ago with a bungled ISA transfer (bungled by the bank that is, not me). This was not ICESAVE, it was A&L who were supposed be be transferring the money in from Barclays. Well, they lost it for a couple of weeks, which was a real worry at the time. There was a lot of other hassle too, which resulted in my being investigated by the Inland Revenue for trying to contribute to 2 ISAs in 1 tax year! They soon realised that it was a bank blunder though, and in all fairness, Barclays sorted it out and the money remains there to this day, despite the interest rate being a little lower. I did not even get an apology from A&L. I haven't had the nerve to try to transfer cash ISA money since!
Seriously though, the advice about keeping records of who you speak to and what is said and when is a really good idea. Try not to worry too much though, it will eventually get sorted out.

chardonnay_2 · 25 April 2007 at 9:08PM

good news is the money was returned on tuesday. turned out it was in banco santander in madrid:eek:

on friday (deadline) the letter from icesave including the long awaited trace did not arrive.

icesave then after a long debate agreed to send this by special delivery.

parents contacted direct debit again - they were told email them all the details

parents told icesave that they were to contact direct debit at 4pm.

icesave finally got their act together and involved their financial director.

icesave confirmed they had changed the sort code and account number

icesave financial director contacted cahoot giving them till tuesday to investigate providing them with details of the trace.

money was in a holding account in madrid.

parents will still be continuing their complaint with icesave and cahoot (who had previously denied having the money on numerous phone calls)

Cobertizo · 25 April 2007 at 9:36PM

chardonnay wrote: »

good news is the money was returned on tuesday. turned out it was in banco santander in madrid:eek:

<snip>

parents will still be continuing their complaint with icesave and cahoot (who had previously denied having the money on numerous phone calls)

I'm glad to hear that the money is back with your parents - must have been very stressful to have that amount of money "misplaced"!

Looking at Wikipedia (which hopefully is reliable on this occasion), it seems that cahoot is part of the Santander Group. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Santander

That may at least explain why the money turned up in quite such a strange place. And suggests that, though Icesave may not have been quite as helpful as they might have been, they may well have been telling the truth when they were denying having the money - it looks like cahoot did have it all along (albeit a few hundred miles from where it should have been!).

surfcat · 25 April 2007 at 10:51PM

cahoot is the internet only branch of abbey, which is now owned by banco santander

home_alone · 26 April 2007 at 3:24PM

Having read through this thread and the others on the same subject I would say that an apology to icesave is in order, they clearly could not be blamed for losing the money and did help to recover it from it looks like a cahoot bank account. The moral of this story is be extra careful with the many numbers required to shift money around.

gary

IGK · 26 April 2007 at 5:42PM

Well I think that Icesave should have not made the payment in the first place when the advisor noticed the payment had failed with an incorrect account number. Insted of guessing what the correct number should be and therefore sending the money to the wrong place, they should have contacted the account holder and asked for the correct details.

home_alone · 26 April 2007 at 6:58PM

It is the responsibility of the customer to provide the correct details otherwise we would all be in a fine mess, icesave once approached to assist in finding where it went should have reacted more quickly. Lets hope its a lesson learned by all concerned. My concern is that there are numerous posts all blaming icesave all over this site, when the major and crtical fault lie in the input of the wrong details. My last word on the subject.

gary

icesave have lost my parents 6k by direct debit urgent help needed

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