Bank gave my money to a stranger

Fiddlesticks_123

Hi all
I recently discovered that hundreds of pounds had gone missing from an account I hold with Lloyds. When I queried it, at first the bank couldn't find any trace of the money.

The next day they admitted that a cashier had mistakenly entered my account number when a customer at a branch wanted to withdraw money from his account. This random stranger had been given hundreds of pounds from my account and Lloyds hadnt even noticed.

Surely the banks have checks in place to prevent these kinds of mistakes happening, so presumably the cashier was able to ignore them? To say that I'm furious would be an understatement.

The bank has refunded the money of course but I'm not at all happy and I am writing a strong letter of complaint. What is my legal situation here? Is there a law that I can quote in my letter to them?

Any advice is appreciated, thank you.

HouseHuntr

Quote the Trolling law !

Fiddlesticks_123

Hi and thanks for the very quick response.

Whats the Trolling Law - I cant find a reference to it anywhere on Google.
thanks

oldagetraveller

Fiddlesticks_123 wrote: »

Any advice is appreciated, thank you.

First of all I'd put the smart alec above on your ignore list!

Evilm

They made a mistake and corrected it. Its not unusual for them not to be able to find such things straight away but once you asked them they obviously audited their paperwork for the day and discovered and corrected the area.

If you have incurred due to this and they haven't refunded these then I would, personally be very annoyed. If not then personally I wouldn't be too annoyed since they have corrected the errors quickly upon discovery.

I'm not aware of anything you can quote to them, especially as it seems that you have not lost out overall but I can understand why you wish to raise this to management.

amus

Yes the cashier should have looked at the signatures they have on their systems before handing money out without a debit card (which obviously wasnt used otherwise the correct account would have automatically shown up on the system without the cashier having to type anything in). This is negligence on the cashiers part as she/he obviously hadnt checked the signatures. Also if the cashier gave out a reciept with the cash the person who withdrew the money will now have your account details, so not sure where it stands legally (perhaps you could re-post on the legal advice board) but I would think some compensation is in order.

Biggles

The cashier made an error. The error has been corrected and the cashier will certainly have been spoken to about it. I can't think what good your writing to them would do now.

If, of course, you are out of pocket in any way, then some kind of reimbursement would be apprpriate but it doesn't sound as though you are.

Move on....

BASFORDLAD

I to think this is a classic bit of trolling...

ajones28

What I don't understand is how the money was taken out. If the person used their debit card, like Amus said, they would not have gone into the incorrect account (either pin number would be required or matching signature to withdraw over the counter). Therefore the only way it could have been done is if they showed ID. Again though if this was the case then there is no way that the advisor would have gone into the wrong account. This can only mean one thing - the advisor did not follow the banks standard security measures to ensure things like this don't happen.
Yes you could write and complain but I think the only thing you are likely to get is a standard letter of apology. If this is all you want fair enough go for it. If its compensation you're after though I don't think it is likely as they sorted it out the minute you advised them what had happened; also there wasn't actually any loss involved-unless you can prove you were going to buy something at a reduced price and by the time you went back the price had increased. You would have to have had no money in the bank whatsoever though to say this obviously, otherwise they will say you could have used that.

:eek: ITS SCARY TO THINK THAT BANKS COULD BE SO CARELESS WITH OUR HARD-EARNED MONEY :eek:

jambosans

Fiddlesticks_123 wrote: »

But I did want to quote the relevant law to them (if any existed) because I feel they should be acting in accordance with that law. And also because I think that they are more likely to sit up and take notice if you quote the law at them.

Your bank will have stringent policies in place to prevent these situations from happening. What they cannot account for is an employee not following policy (if that is what has happened in this case). Spouting off relevant laws isn't going to change their reply of "human error."

Fiddlesticks_123 wrote: »

However, I also do not agree that we should ignore these things when they happen - that would be tantamount to saying; "I dont care how careless you are with my money... do what you like." Thats just not acceptable to me. If we trust them with our money, they need to be held accountable when they make what I consider to be a serious error.

What do you want to happen? The cashier sacked? Banks all have disciplinary procedures for these types of situation, so the cashier will be held to account. Whether that be some re-training or a discussion record, it's for their employer to decide, not you.

Fiddlesticks_123 wrote: »

It may not accomplish much to write to them, but neither am I going to sit back and do nothing.

It won't accomplish much, but you have every right to have your grievance noted. Aside from the initial shock and perhaps stress of finding out the money had gone missing, LTSB rectified the situation with little damage done. I would expect a letter of apology and perhaps £10 goodwill (to cover phone calls, stress, and to get you off their case).

preable

quick call the troll police