I have £20K which isn't mine!

Bestselling_Author

Oh I have BIG money problems:rotfl:

I recently transfered my cash ISA from one bank to another. My transfer worked fine and I have my money safely residing in my new ISA.

BUT ... my old provider has also transferred about £20K of someone else's money into my new ISA with my new provider!

Now, I know I can't do anything with it because it isn't MY money. But does anyone know the legalities here? I've spoken to both providers (who said I need to refer to the other :mad:, so I rang the Financial Ombudsman who told me it was my previous provider's responsibility to resolve the issue.) I have brought this to the attention of my old provider

What I want to know is:

• How long should I have to wait until the issue is sorted?
• Can I keep the 'extra' interest I'm earning on the £20K?
• Can this affect my Cash ISA allowances in any way?

I appreciate the error works in my favour, but there's someone out there with £20K missing and I'd be deeply upset if it was me. Also, this is a mistake and its not something I should have to resolve because it isn;t my mistake. However it could impact on me because if a better Cash ISA rate appears on the market, I can't transfer and make use of it until the matter is resolved.

Does anyone have any (sensible) advice?

TomsMom

I can't really offer you any advice, you seem to have done all you can to draw the matter to the attention of everyone involved and try to resolve the issue.

I can't see it affecting your ISA allowance in any way. Assuming you have deposited your maximum allowance each year then you've done everything right.

However it could impact on me because if a better Cash ISA rate appears on the market, I can't transfer and make use of it until the matter is resolved.

If you want to transfer for a better rate in the future, you can transfer what is yours and leave the £20,000 where it is, some ISA providers accept partial transfers. That way you are not touching what isn't legally yours and it's there to hand back to the rightful owner when it's been sorted.

MrExample

If it was a transfer, then you haven't subscribed new money (even considering the £20K), so it shouldn't have any affect on your allowances.

There have been threads posted here before about mysteriously appearing money, you might want to try searching if you haven't already.

I would just leave the money where it is, make no assumptions about the interest, and keep on at your bank about it. For some reason banks seem don't seem to be any hurry to try to resolve these problems...

Molotov

So that's where my beer money went to!

Would save us both a lot of time and trouble if you just sent it straight back to my Paypal account - its ubinad@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Blah99

If neither bank's Customer Services are helping you, the quickest way to solve this is to speak to the sending bank's fraud department. They'll get it sorted ASAP.