One wrong digit in account number

cherry76

I transferred nearly 1.5k from my saga share direct to NW flex account. I was surprised the money did not reach my account. I checked the history in my saga share account and found out that one digit is wrong there is a 3 instead of a 2. My account details were already in the system so I did not have to key them again but only checked the last 4 digits which were right.

Please can somebody tell me what happens now!! Saga CS was very rude and unhelpful and said there is no mistake as they check all bank account number and I must have done it incorrectly myself. I do no know how this could happen as I have bought shares before and the money has come from this account. I phoned NW and was told the account number in question is invalid and the money will be returned to Saga. Is this correct? I do not know how this works. The name is unusual and it is unlikely it will go to somebody else account. I usually transfer a £1 before I do not know why I did not do it this time. Can somebody help, pl? Thanks

missile

NW have told you that they will return the money. You will need to be patient.

Mikeyorks

cherry76 wrote: »

I phoned NW and was told the account number in question is invalid and the money will be returned to Saga. Is this correct? I do not know how this works. The name is unusual and it is unlikely it will go to somebody else account.

Although the name is present in the BACS record - it's not used other than for tracing if something goes wrong. The target to hit your NW account is purely created from Sort Code / Account number. And - if you just get one character wrong there is a check digit algorithm which should be in place at the Saga end and should, in most cases, pick that up as an error.

However - as it can't find a home on the NW system it should have dropped into one of their suspense accounts. And will be manually sent back to the original account after a few days. I don't know the inner Bank workings but :-

The name is unusual

........ it's one of those cases where the name on the BACS record would be useful if you were paying a bill (of an amount matching your payment). But I doubt a Bank would attempt to allocate it to your account ..... even though a trace of your name would come up with a close match to the Account number provided. So it will go back ......... should be a maximum of 7 / 10 working days from the time you sent it.

Ring NW and ask they check their suspense if longer. Then ask they allocate it if it's still there.

cherry76

Thanks, I have just checked my terms and condtions from saga share direct and found out that they do check the account name and details before opening an account online. It is already documented in my account history that I opened the account with £50 cheque as verification. So the mistake comes from them, I am going to ask to be refunded for all the phone calls I have made to them and NW and the penalty I will be charged for being overdrawn through no fault of mine. If I do not get anywhere with them, I will take it further. I have been stressed and losing sleep over this and this money was to pay for a bill. Thanks