Lost faster payment

Nick_sub

I paid our window cleaner £20 a couple of months ago. Both our accounts have faster payments (I'm with A&L and he's with Lloyds). The payment left my account immediately but never appeared in his account.

I called A&L who investigated and then told me that they had successfully delivered the payment to LLoyds. They said they could not talk to LLoyds about it so I would need to ask them to trace it through their system. When I phoned them they refused to help as I was not a LLoyds customer. I asked the receipient to call Lloyds but they were very unhelpful to him and we got not further.

What should I do next? A&L tell me they've made no mistakes but I don't feel like I'll get anywhere with LLoyds as I'm not their customer. Should I write to Faster Payments? £20 is not the end of the world, but I have completely lost trust in online transfers now and I really want to get to the bottom of it.

opinions4u

Let's assume you've checked the numbers and your window cleaner is honest.

Santander should follow this up for you. It's their payment to trace. If this has failed to find the money, then I suggest you complain to Santander and send Lloyds a copy of the complaint. In it, include a specific authority allowing them to talk to each other.

Request a solution within 14 days.

ChiefGrasscutter

.......and then come back update this thread and tell us what happened and who was to blame: should be interesting!

Nick_sub

Thanks for your replies. Yes, I have triple-checked the details and the window cleaner is trustworthy. I'm still deliberating what to do about it but as opinions4u suggested I suspect I will contact both banks.

Will come back and let you know what happens but don't hold your breath!

Nick_sub

What happened....

I checked with the UK Payments Authority who confirmed that it is the originating bank's authority to trace the payment so I sent a complaint to Santander. Yesterday I received a response saying that the payment had ended up in a suspense account and although they didn't normally refund lost payments, in they case they would.

They also rather rudely asked me to check my payment details in the future to avoid the problem happening again, despite the fact that the payment details were correct so that wasn't the cause of the problem!

slush

Nick_sub wrote: »

.... so that wasn't the cause of the problem!

It seems like Santander was the real cause of the problem.

barak

Nick_sub wrote: »

.....They also rather rudely asked me to check my payment details in the future to avoid the problem happening again, despite the fact that the payment details were correct so that wasn't the cause of the problem!

I'm not doubting what you say, but as a matter of interest how did you check that the payment details you entered were correct? Did you print your payment request?

opinions4u

Nick_sub wrote: »

Yesterday I received a response saying that the payment had ended up in a suspense account and although they didn't normally refund lost payments, in they case they would.

If it's in a suspense account it's not lost. This sounds like they simply haven't bothered looking for it.

They also rather rudely asked me to check my payment details in the future to avoid the problem happening again, despite the fact that the payment details were correct so that wasn't the cause of the problem!

Assuming (for a moment) that they have bothered looking for it, and it's in a Lloyds TSB suspense account, then this is absolutely the right thing for them to do, as the error would have been yours.

Nick_sub

I checked the payee details I set up for the transaction matched the payee details I was given (and di it 3 times on seperate occasions to check I wasn't going mad). I must admit I have lost confidence in BACS and FP after this experience. If it had been a larger amount I'm not sure whether Santander would have refunded it. When I setup a new payee from now on I will do a £1 test payment first.

Nick_sub

opinions4u wrote: »

Assuming (for a moment) that they have bothered looking for it, and it's in a Lloyds TSB suspense account, then this is absolutely the right thing for them to do, as the error would have been yours.

Surely if I had the details correct, which I'm sure I did, then in that case the error would have been with LLoyds TSB?

tyllwyd

Nick_sub wrote: »

I checked the payee details I set up for the transaction matched the payee details I was given ...

Are you sure the payee details you were given were correct?