Money Paid to wrong bank account

Lip

Help Please!!

I have paid £1000 into the bank account of someone i done know online, i thought the only details i had on my internet banking were for my credit card but it seems i had someones details stored on there from years ago and i cant recall who this person is but i have made the tranfer to them incorrectly.

I have contacted both my bank and theirs to be told that i have made transfer so really theres not a lot that can be done. Their bank cant force them to return it to me, i have forwarded a letter onto the benficiary but have not had a response.

Can this person keep my money??!! Is there nothing i can do?

Is there anyway for me to find out who this person is? and if i do happen to find out, by tracing back the payment i made years ago, if i get to know who this person is what action can i take against them? Can i try to reclaim it through the small claims court?

reclusive46

There's not really anything you can do. You authorised the wire.

ChiefGrasscutter

This one comes up time and time again on this board.
It seems to generate more heat than light to quote an old expression.
At one extreme:
We have people being told it's their mistake - learn from it, there is nothing your can do - don't make the same mistake again - check and re-check, read the confirmation screens on the payment details properely before you press the accept key in future.
At the other:
We have stories of people having sums dumped into their accounts in error and then suddenly removed again without them ever being contacted.

How many of these are genuine and factually accurate is anybody's guess - this is the internet after all.................

So:
As far as I can make out your best bet is to contact your bank again.
They will need to contact the end receipient/bank via their internal channels.
The end recipient will be "asked to consent to the funds being returned"
At that point the transaction can be reversed.
Expect the bank to charge you for this service.
Curiously every time we see this problem occuring we never find out exactly what happened at the end despite endless pages being written on it by forum members quoting the theft ammendment acts etc.

I really do wish the FSA would regularise this issue and come up with a definitive course of action to take plus applicable charges for sortingo out the mess. You will understand the banks cannot simply "remove money from peoples accounts on your say so" so there has to some sort of due process taking place.

PS if you are REALLY lucky the account you transferred it to will have been closed since years ago and the new money will bounce back to your account after a few days - meanwhile it is held in a suspense account at the receiving bank.

ihateyes

awww this could be costly.....

as the above poster says, as you authoised the transaction theres not much they will do......


If the bank dumps the money in your account and you spend it knowingly its not yours you will get done for theft...... ( there was a young couple who done this and went to spain, only to get arrested and sent back to the UK).

if you dump the money in someone's account and they soend it knowing its not theres..... well thats a whole different story!!


it only ever works in the banks favour.

antrobus

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

This one comes up time and time again on this board...

As in;

Money transferred to wrong account, bank won't pay it back.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3235354

Reclaiming mistaken internet bank payment
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3014944

Reclaiming my money that went to the wrong account
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3131772

and lots, lots, more.

Basically it comes down to the following;

- it's your mistake, the bank won't reimburse you
- the bank will however assist in contacting the beneficiary to request a return of the funds
- if that doesn't work, then you have to go legal

Of course to go legal, you need to know who it is you're going to sue. I'm not sure any of us can help the OP on that one. Hopefully the recipient would have been some kind of business, so tapping the details into Google might produce a result.

pmduk

antrobus wrote: »

- it's your mistake, the bank won't reimburse you
- the bank will however assist in contacting the beneficiary to request a return of the funds

Your bank will almost certainly say in its terms and conditions that you will be responsible for its costs in this.

antrobus wrote: »

Of course to go legal, you need to know who it is you're going to sue. I'm not sure any of us can help the OP on that one. Hopefully the recipient would have been some kind of business, so tapping the details into Google might produce a result.

Searching back through your records for the previous period might help you
recall who the money has gone to. The receiving bank is not allowed to give you any details of the recipient.

jonesMUFCforever

Following the above posts if the beneficiary does not return the funds you can appoint a solicitor to make a court application to get the bank to divulge the name and address of the recipient.
Of course if he/she has cleaned the account out and spent it a court order might not bother them in the least and the best you might get is the promise of say £1 a month in repayments.
A harsh lesson indeed to learn.

Lip

wow lots of information - Thank you all.

The recipiants bank has confirmed that the money was deposited into their account but that they cant tell me who the recipiant is.

This has been going on since February, they have stated that they will forward on a letter i send to the account holder and thats it, complaint closed they will wash their hands of it.

How can i find out who the account holder is? Can a solicitor really help me do that?

stclair

Lip wrote: »

wow lots of information - Thank you all.

The recipiants bank has confirmed that the money was deposited into their account but that they cant tell me who the recipiant is.

This has been going on since February, they have stated that they will forward on a letter i send to the account holder and thats it, complaint closed they will wash their hands of it.

How can i find out who the account holder is? Can a solicitor really help me do that?

It may end up costly but they can possibly help the best way forward would be to contact one if you have exhausted all other avenues.

erdd2

Without written confirmation from the recipient that the money should be returned to you, the banks hands are tied. That you do not know the recipient means you have no name to raise an action against. It is a costly lesson. I do hope the recipient does the honest deed.

tanjatucker

erdd2 wrote: »

Without written confirmation from the recipient that the money should be returned to you, the banks hands are tied. That you do not know the recipient means you have no name to raise an action against. It is a costly lesson. I do hope the recipient does the honest deed.

Don't quite understand this. Last week I realised someone had paid a substantial amount of money into my savings account (several thousand pounds) about 3 weeks ago. Tonight I checked my online banking again as I was going to call into my bank tomorrow to make them aware of this erroneous transaction, but when I checked my account the money had been transferred back out again on Friday. All of this happened without me doing anything at all, so it looks like the banks can do as they please whether they get agreement from the account holder or not?
I don't mind as it saves me a trip to Santander, who are generally completely useless, but it certainly seems to contradict what's been said above? Any explanations?