Alliance & Leicester won't cancel a transaction - should they?

Tristanod

My other half has just transferred £50 accidentally from her A&L account to another bank. She was meant to set it up to go out after pay day (15th) but accidentally put it through as instant. She doesn't have £50 in the account, so immediately phoned to ask them to cancel the transaction.

They said they were unable to and that she would get charged. Even if she had £50 transferred into the account tonight (I'm with A&L too so could do that) she would still get charged, even though her transaction won't get processed till the next working day.

It seems wrong to me that they're unable to cancel a transaction that hasn't been processed yet on request. Does anyone know if there's anything she can do about it?

MoodyBlues

Is it another bank account of hers she sent it to?
If so faster payment with A&L is a joke. She may have sent it to the correct account, but it will take absolutely ages to get there. I'm still waiting for 2 transfers I did to be received into my other bank accounts, and I know I made the right transfers.

YorkshireBoy

Tristanod wrote: »

It seems wrong to me that they're unable to cancel a transaction that hasn't been processed yet on request.

Are you sure it's not gone via Faster Payment if it's under £250? If so then these can't be cancelled/recalled.

Does anyone know if there's anything she can do about it?

Not after the fact, but by way of a preventive measure for the future you could show her where, in her secure area, it displays her "available balance".

Tristanod

Ah, the faster payments thing is probably the issue. They had said they used to be able to cancel.

It's not an issue of her not knowing how much she had available. She knew she had less than £50, which is why she was meant to set it up to be paid after pay-day. She just clicked submit automatically before changing the date!