I sent money to the wrong account number and now can't get it back - advice please

ljaneyr

I don't know if this is the right place for this so please move it if necessary.

I know there have been threads on this before but they seemed to imply the money would be paid back so this is a different situation.

In April I set up a transfer from my egg internet banking to my new santander e saver account. I sent off the money then realised I had missed off the 8th digit of the account number. As I hadn't entered the full number I assumed it would get sent back. When the money didn't reappear I contacted egg who said a zero had been added to make an 8 digit number and the money had been paid into a live account, and that they would contact Santander to send the money back. They told me they sent three requests with no response so I called Santander customer services (got through after a week of trying) who said to write to their Missing Posts department who would give the account holder notice then take the money back - and not to worry about it!

I wrote to Santander and have just received a letter saying that they have no record of contact from egg but that they have written to the account holder asking them to authorise the return of the money. They will send a second letter in two weeks but if they do not authorise it there is nothing more they can do.

Obviously this is my fault and I should have checked the number more carefully. The amount I sent is over £300 and I am desperately upset that I have lost it. I don't think for a minute that they will just give the money back.

If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it, is there anything else I can do? I don't understand why a zero was added or why they still paid money to a 7 digit number.

To make matters worse I'm really upset about some ongoing illness in my family that has become particularly serious this week. I started crying on the phone to egg earlier so I just can't face calling Santander.

L

stclair

It sounds like santander are doing everything they can by writing to the accont holder.

However Santander can not just debit the account because you say so, they would need permission from the account holder the money was paid into.

Is the account actually valid check the details below if the account number is not valid the funds may be sitting in santanders suspense account.

http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/demos/bankvalidator.aspx

HappyMJ

stclair wrote: »

It sounds like santander are doing everything they can by writing to the accont holder.

However Santander can not just debit the account because you say so, they would need permission from the account holder the money was paid into.

Is the account actually valid check the details below if the account number is not valid the funds may be sitting in santanders suspense account.

http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/demos/bankvalidator.aspx

Nice program....bookmarked for future use. I can never remember by branch details or my IBAN number. It's got all that. Thanks.

pmduk

I'd be asking egg why they altered the account number that you entered. If the account number you entered is incorrect they should just reject the transaction rather than attempt a correction. If necessary make a formal complaint.

antrobus

ljaneyr wrote: »

... I contacted egg who said a zero had been added to make an 8 digit number and the money had been paid into a live account, ...

pmduk wrote: »

I'd be asking egg why they altered the account number that you entered. If the account number you entered is incorrect they should just reject the transaction rather than attempt a correction. If necessary make a formal complaint.

So would I. Depending on what algorithm was used by that particular bit of Santander to generate account numbers, there could be two, three, or more valid accounts who all shared the first seven digits. Egg shouldn't be playing roulette and trying to guess which one is the right one.

molerat

Agree with others. You made an error which should have been rejected had Egg not compounded it by carrying out something other than your instructions. Send a letter to Egg headed in bold "FORMAL COMPLAINT" outlining their error and how you want it rectified. They have 8 weeks to complete this to your satisfaction before you pass it onto the ombudsman.

ChiefGrasscutter

pmduk wrote: »

I'd be asking egg why they altered the account number that you entered. If the account number you entered is incorrect they should just reject the transaction rather than attempt a correction. If necessary make a formal complaint.

Used to be pretty std to add the required number of leading zero's to make it an 8 digit number.
I used to have a 7 digit a/c number and I can remember several on line applications that automatically added the leading zero to make it 8 digits for the system to work.
-Eventually the bank added in the leading zero themselves to make it an 8 digit a/c officially.
So I guess that's what happened here.......doesn't help the OP mind

Hazzanet

ljaneyr wrote: »

If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it, is there anything else I can do? I don't understand why a zero was added or why they still paid money to a 7 digit number.

The BACS system doesn't recognise the leading '0's, although generally they are required to pad the number out to 8 digits.

If you entered '1' as the account number it would have gone to account '00000001'
If you entered '1234567' as the account number, it would have gone to '01234567'.

Most banks have something behind their web interface to reject anything other than an 8 digit input to avoid this quirk of the system, whereas it seems that Egg hasn't (and to be honest, they have acted correctly on your instruction).

I recall that my LTSB account used to have 7 digits, and I had to add a leading '0' to make it 8 years ago.

ffacoffipawb

stclair wrote: »

It sounds like santander are doing everything they can by writing to the accont holder.

However Santander can not just debit the account because you say so, they would need permission from the account holder the money was paid into.

Is the account actually valid check the details below if the account number is not valid the funds may be sitting in santanders suspense account.

http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/demos/bankvalidator.aspx

Not sure if it's that useful. I just keyed in the sort code and account number of an account I closed in 1992 (my first ever account before switching to firstdirect who I am still with) and it is still a valid account.

Either it has been reallocated or the web code just checks validity via check digits and not actual existence

stclair

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Not sure if it's that useful. I just keyed in the sort code and account number of an account I closed in 1992 (my first ever account before switching to firstdirect who I am still with) and it is still a valid account.

Either it has been reallocated or the web code just checks validity via check digits and not actual existence

As the account was from 1992 the details would have been re-allocated now. I have tried it on an old account myself and it did not identify it as being a valid account.