Paid someone by mistake - banks not wanting to help :(

Pastychucker

Bit of a strange problem - but wondering if anyone can help?
I have a catalogue debt. Had a letter saying I had missed 2 payments and was charged for this. I checked my bank statement and the money had gone from my account. On further investigation by my bank it seems that when I set up the first payment in October I must have accidently put my catalogue customer number as the catalogue bank account number - this meant that someone who happened to have that bank account number has had 2 amounts of money paid to them by me. The chances of this must be really slim. Sanatander - my bank, are saying its up to me to contact the payee as I was the one who set up the payment. Nat West who are the bank that the payments went to are saying that the request for the money to be paid back must come from Santander. Nat West can't give me the details of the payee because of data protection. Anyone have any experience of this - I spent ages on the phone today trying to sort it out but neither bank are trying to help me get this money back. Anyone please?

withabix

Santander will have to initiate it.

Go in to your branch.

Pastychucker

Nat west are saying that too. Santander saying no - it should be Natwest - not getting anywhere. I have said i will complain due to lack of action and contact the ombudsman.

BoGoF

Pastychucker wrote: »

Nat west are saying that too. Santander saying no - it should be Natwest - not getting anywhere. I have said i will complain due to lack of action and contact the ombudsman.

You'll find you can't at this stage.

Pastychucker

When can I then?

anniecave

You need to raise a complaint with Santander. You can't go to the ombudsman until you've gone through the complaints process with your bank first.

Branch would probably be your best bet. Alternatively phone up and ask to make a complaint. Or write in recorded delivery to the "Complaints Department". Some companies have a "register a complaint" option via online banking. You could do this if they offer it.

JuicyJesus

In any event, the bank are not required to get the money back for you as they haven't made a mistake; you have.

xylophone

Surely Natwest can contact the customer and explain your error without having to pass details of his name etc to you?

macman

Of course they won't provide the contact details of the payee. But Santander should be wiling to ask NatWest to make contact. They can't just 'take the payment back'-the recipient would have to agree it. NatWest will have no idea if there has been an error or not.

Dr_Cuckoo3

what was the sort code ?- 62-13-35

I doubt that the sort code used for a mail order collection account is also used for personal bank accounts and you say that you only entered the account number incorrectly

You can report the matter to the Financial Ombudsman at any time on 0800 0234567 and they will pass a summary of your complaint to the financial firm

I do this all the time to save paying for stamps and phone calls

The catalogue company is covered by the Financial Ombudsman too

Pastychucker

I know the chances are pretty slim of getting the money back - I am kicking myself for the error I made. However, I just want one or them to give it a go!! Natwest said that if I had been with them that they would have passed it to their fraud dept. to investigate as whoever got the money had kept it when it wasn't for them. I don't think if I got £120 paid into my account I'd be willing to pay it back either but it's surely worth a try.