Help - error in bank transfer

LauraMaryBennett

My boyfriend made a bit of a mistake when trying to transfer some money from an HSBC account to a Barclays account.

Basically he selected Barclaycard as the destination and put in his debit card number (for his current account) - which will not be a valid barclaycard number.

He has contacted HSBC to say this was a mistake and they have given him a long reference number (about 30 digits) and told him to contact Barclaycard to retrieve the money.

Customer services at Barclaycard are being VERY unhelpful. Does anyone have a number or name of a department there that is the right place to speak to.

This reference number should be enough to get the money back - it's just a case of finding someone who will take the number and use it to send the money back.

Any help much appreciated - he spent ages being passed around by barclaycard last night, there must be someone there who can sort this out!

McKneff

Have you checked to see if the money has actually gone out of the HSBC.
If he selected barclaycard and put in a number which Barclaycard did not recognise then i would have thought it would have rejected it. or am i reading this wrong.

LauraMaryBennett

The money has come off his account - HSBC have told him to contact Barclaycard with the 30 digit reference number.

It should not have been sent to a person's Barclaycard account as the number was not a valid Barclaycard number. It should hopefully bounce back in the end, but HSBC said he should be able to retreive the money in a couple of days with this reference number - just no-one at Barclaycard seems to be able to sort it out.

Surely there is a department at Barclaycard who deal with this sort of thing - this cannot be the first time someone has made a mistake on this.

McKneff

I agree with you totally, about it not being valid so it should not have accepted it.

If you need to ring them again Mary, get an alternative number from Saynoto0870 as i presume it will be an o845 or 0870 number you are ringing.

LauraMaryBennett

It's just so frustrating when one organisation says "here is a reference number just contact Barclaycard and they will be able to sort it out" so you do that, and Barclaycard just pass you around - even to Barclays customer services who have nothing to do with it - and say they can't help.

He's going to try again today - I think trying to sort this out at 10pm last night there maybe weren't the right people on the phones to sort it out.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Do payments actually work on card number?

I would have thought to transfer money to an account they would have need the sort code and account number in which case I am not convinced that picking the wrong bank would necessarily mean it didnt reach its destination.

LauraMaryBennett

He got a bit confused and chose barclaycard but put in the number from his bank account debit card - it starts with the wrong number so cannot be a barclaycard account number.

He went into the wrong bit and did it as paying a credit card instead of a bank transfer (he was trying to do it in a rush in a break). So there was just a space to put in a long card number not for a sort code and account number!

Has anyone else made a mistake on this kind of thing before - if it hasn't already gone to someone else's account surely it should be easy to get back! Especially when you have a reference number for the transaction!

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

It isnt easy to get back. The payment has to be found, recalled if possibly and so on.

It might be frustrating but it isnt barclaycards' fault your son screwed up.

The money is probably sitting in a holding count awaiting allocation to a customer account. At this stage it will likely become clear an error has occurred and the payment will hit a holding/suspense account until your bank recalls it.

Personally I would ignore the existing instructions and go back to my own bank and ask them to do all the hard work and find the money and recall it.

LauraMaryBennett

My boyfriend (not son, we are a bit young for that) completely admits he messed up - it isn't anyone else's fault but his.

But HSBC rang and gave a reference number to retreive the money and when he phoned barclaycard they were just no help at all. In half an hour they must have passed him round about 10 different people, noone of whom could give him a straight answer.

Surely there is someone on the phone somewhere at barclaycard who deals with this sort of thing, that he can give the reference number to and start the ball rolling to retreive the money!

eslick

have to agree that the funds will be in a suspense account but to be honest the recalling piece can be a little tricky and time consuming. barclaycard should be able to locate the money with the reference your bank gave plus the card number and then they should be able to allocate it to the correct account. It happens, companys should be able to fix it, its just a good thing that you spotted it rather than wait for barclaycard to as they will keep the money on their account for as long as they can until they return it after all its in their benefit to do so.

LauraMaryBennett

eslick wrote: »

have to agree that the funds will be in a suspense account but to be honest the recalling piece can be a little tricky and time consuming. barclaycard should be able to locate the money with the reference your bank gave plus the card number and then they should be able to allocate it to the correct account. It happens, companys should be able to fix it, its just a good thing that you spotted it rather than wait for barclaycard to as they will keep the money on their account for as long as they can until they return it after all its in their benefit to do so.

It's just finding someone at Barclaycard who will take the reference number - he told them that he has it but they couldn't (or wouldn't, or didn't know) find a person he could give it to. That is what is so frustrating!