Missing Bank Transfer

Starry44

On the 13 Sep 2011, I transferred a large sum of money from my Halifax ISA account to my Santander Current Account by BACS transfer. As it was a large amount, on 15 Sep I checked to see that it had gone through. To my horror, I realised that I was 2 digits out on my sort code.:mad:I immediately phoned Halifax and after approximately 1 hr on the phone and having to explain myself several times, I was assured that the money would be bounced back to Santander. I also rang Santander; after 30 mins on phone I was told I would have to wait for the money to get bounced back. The timescales for this would be 3-5 days from Halifax to Santander and 3-5 days back again:mad:. The reason for the transfer was to pay for a car for which I had paid a deposit.

By 22 Sep, the money had still not appeared! I took a day off work and went to my local Halifax branch and explained. They were very helpful and said the money was probably in a Santander holding account. The female bank staff agreed to walk with me to Santander and explain. The query was then investigated in Santander; I was told the money had been in a holding account for 2 days but had then been sent back to Santander. Back to Halifax with the lady from Santander to explain again.......After an hour of waiting whilst the Halifax lady rang the Halifax helpline, I was assured that the money would get back to the Halifax, but be held in a holding account. They would be unable to put it back into my ISA as the system would see it as a deposit of over the annual ISA allowance (£5300)! They would have to do a manual transfer back into my ISA and it should be in my account by end of 26 Sep. Guess what, no luck!

I went back to Halifax again yesterday, (more time away from work) and another hour wait while the Halifax rang their helpline. The Halifax lady spoke to a Halifax colleague over the phone to be told that this request had to be done by email (I have a copy), but it should be in my account by end 27 Sep. It is not. I feel that although the initial mistake was mine, I am now caught up in some sort of banking hell!

I also enquired about having about having the money transferred by instant transfer at nil cost as a good will gesture once this issue is sorted, if not, to have the interest paid on the amount for the days whilst the money has been floating in the ether. Not an unreasonable request but the answer was no, as it was my fault!

The purpose of this post is twofold:

Double check your details before transferring your money. I assumed that my details were correct. The account No was correct but my sort code ended in xx-xx-xz instead of xx-xx-xx.

Can anyone provide any advice as to what I do next as it is now into the 3rd week and I am getting pressurised by the car dealer to collect the car?

cockneysean

Whilst you have my utmost sympathy, you have said that the mistake was yours, so you will just have to take that one on the chin!

However, it is your money and you do not have it! Seeing as the bank have acknowledged the error and they know where the money is, they should be doing more to get it back to you.

If I were in this situation I would make one more visit/phone call to the bank and then if I did not get a satisfactory response I would make an official complaint and then approach the Financial Services Ombudsman if it was not resolved appropriately!

As for the car sales person, tell them where to go! If you have explained all of this to them they should be a little more understanding. Or you could suggest that they give you the car now if they are that desperate to offload it, and tell them that they will get the money in due course.

And of course, yes it is very important to double check that you have entered the correct details when making transfers of any amount. Especially so, considering that with the Faster Payments system you are warned that if you make a payment in error to an incorrect account number, the responsibility lies with you and you may not be able to retrive the money at all!