£900 & barclays bank

Lokolo

But surely if theres an explanation for it then the bank can retrieve the money? The banks don't have to ask for the money back, they just take (if the bank had made the error)

So if the sort code was meant to be 10-10-12 and they inputted 10-10-11, there is a contract with person X and Y for rent or something say, and details are on there for £710 standing order (£710 made up amount), surely its pretty self explanitory that the money went to the wrong place?

I can see how they give 7/14 days whatever notice, but they still take without question...

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In this particular case it was between a letting agent and a tennant. Who would surely have a contract written out, couldn't they show this to the bank to prove that it obviously went to the wrong person, then the bank retrieve the money?

I don't see banks going through small claims court to take the money back when they make errors?

Extant

Lokolo wrote: »

But surely if theres an explanation for it then the bank can retrieve the money? The banks don't have to ask for the money back, they just take (if the bank had made the error)

Yes, that's because we know it's our error and there's definitely no entitlement there. We're not going to be afraid to take it out because we know exactly what happened - we screwed it up, we fix it.

This isn't the case, though - a mandate was put in place, by the customer, through online banking to pay this person. As far as we know, this may be a perfectly valid business agreement and initially intended. The example I used previously was for a car; if the person sending that payment then said it was wrong and reversed it, there's nothing to then stop them removing the funds and closing their account.

Meanwhile, the original recipient comes in and queries his missing money, and is not happy with the fact that we've taken this money and he's down a car.

Realistically, when that money leaves your account and enters someone else's, it's no longer yours. You can't just demand it back. If you overpaid your credit card bill, you wouldn't go to your bank and ask them to get you the difference back. There's no authority to debit that account.

That authority needs to come from the customer. Is the customer legally entitled to the money? Not necessarily, but that doesn't mean we can just take it.

So if the sort code was meant to be 10-10-12 and they inputted 10-10-11, there is a contract with person X and Y for rent or something say, and details are on there for £710 standing order (£710 made up amount), surely its pretty self explanitory that the money went to the wrong place?

It's not that simple - miskeys like that are designed not to happen. And they don't. Not all sort codes hold the same account numbers, there are different "books" - different sets of account numbers for each one. This prevents you sending something to 201010 11223344 when it was meant to go to 201020 11223344 - because that account number just won't exist at 201010, typically.

For this to have happened is actually very unusual - normally it would just bounce back. So again, we've got no indication that this payment was wrong.

I can see how they give 7/14 days whatever notice, but they still take without question...

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In this particular case it was between a letting agent and a tennant. Who would surely have a contract written out, couldn't they show this to the bank to prove that it obviously went to the wrong person, then the bank retrieve the money?

I don't see banks going through small claims court to take the money back when they make errors?

A contract presented to the bank means nothing - we've no way to verify it.

It's a sucky situation, sure - but we've no right to just go take that money.

AnxiousMum

My ex husband transfers money into my Barclay's account every month from Canada for child support. One month he sent it twice - I received a very polite letter from Barclays asking permission to return the second payment to sender as it had been requested by the sender. Unfortunately, he was in arrears at the time, so the answer was no - they could not return it to him. It remained in my account.

Extant

AnxiousMum wrote: »

My ex husband transfers money into my Barclay's account every month from Canada for child support. One month he sent it twice - I received a very polite letter from Barclays asking permission to return the second payment to sender as it had been requested by the sender. Unfortunately, he was in arrears at the time, so the answer was no - they could not return it to him. It remained in my account.

Exactly.

As said, we cannot force someone to return funds deposited in their account if they say no (excluding bank error).

Although there is no legal entitlement to the funds, we are not here to uphold the law. This doesn't mean that we don't do as much as we possible can to help you; it just means we're limited.

NASA_2

Seems like the only person that wins in this situation is the lucky !!!! who got the money by mistake.

I'd like to think that if I was paid money I should not have been then I would give it back - but I doubt I will ever be in that situation to know what I would do.

Lumley330

Thank you ESA - finally someone with a conscience, doesnt seem to be many of us around anymore !! I for one could not sleep at night knowing this money wasnt mine - £900 is a lot of money, we are getting married in December and we really are gutted this has happened. Barclays told us that 99% of people this happens to gets the money back, typical we are the 1%.
I appreciate your comments

lemonjelly

I agree with Barclaysmanager. I would like to acknowledge the quote from the DPA put up here by Barclaysmanager, as this is not well known, and frequently people will hide behind the DPA when in fact, according to the DPA the information should be disclosed.

In addition, if the LA provided the incorrect sort code etc to you, have you considered making a complaint against them for their negligence? From reading the above it seems it was their error?

Valli

Lumley330 wrote: »

Thank you ESA - finally someone with a conscience, doesnt seem to be many of us around anymore !! I for one could not sleep at night knowing this money wasnt mine - £900 is a lot of money, we are getting married in December and we really are gutted this has happened. Barclays told us that 99% of people this happens to gets the money back, typical we are the 1%.
I appreciate your comments

Just out of interest OP have you had to repay the rent (ie pay twice? (It was rent, wasn't it?))

Because I think that the people to whom you owed the money who gave you the incorrect sort code have some responsibility here...and they should stand the loss. You can prove you put the money into the system - it's their fault that you were given the wrong account number.

AndyInYorks

I don't think it's fair to blame Barclays - they have done what they can to try and get the money back, but they can't just go into someone's account and help themselves.

If you had asked me to write to another customer for you, I would have charged £25 per letter (not Barclays though) so really you're lucky that they have done this administration task for free.

Lumley330

Just a litte note to all cynics that obviously work for Barclays. We had a phonecall on Saturday morning from a lady who is based at the Head Office apologising profusely to us for the way we had been treated by Barclays. She also rang to inform us that it only took a polite phonecall to the recipient of our money to get it back. Today it is safely back in our bank account.
Whilst i thank the people who posted on here for your help and advice i also would like to point out that not all people have the views of the mere few who also posted on here.
Barclays admitted that the letters they sent to the recipient werent exactly polite and it was no wonder he wasnt responding.
She called him and explained the situation and requested the money be taken out of his account, he replied that it had happened before and please take the money out as he knows its not his.

That is all i want to say on the subject but i think that BarclaysManager should take note !!!

Thank you to the rest of you for your valued advice and help.