Payment made into closed account

bingobanjo

Hi there,

I accidentally made a payment (a rather large one hence the concern) from my savings account via BACS into a closed current account that I used to have. I now have a new current account with the same bank. The savings account is not with the same bank. (This mistake was far too easy to make as I was presented with a list of historic payees and forgot that the last payment I made was to the old account!! Should've been more thorough!)

I have a couple of questions:

- Will the payment simply be returned or do the bank attempt to send it to another account if the same customer has another open account with them?
- If it gets returned how long will it take?

Also an interesting question that came into my mind - do banks re-use closed account numbers and if so how long are they required to wait before doing so?

Many thanks

dalesrider

Contact the bank you sent the money too. Advise them of what you have done and give them the account numbers.
Should be a simple matter to solve.

izools

As above.

The reason you need to call them, is there are three possible outcomes:

1. The payment will sit in a suspense account the bank hold and remain there until claimed
2. The payment will be rejected and sent back to your bank account
3. The payment will cause your old account to be re-opened and remain in that account

Of course you need to clarify with the receiving bank which of the above will happen, what they can do to return the funds to you, and how long this might take. Only they will know

xylophone

Also an interesting question that came into my mind - do banks re-use closed account numbers and if so how long are they required to wait before doing so?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2186492/Barclays-account-recycling-blunder-left-6k-debt.html

bingobanjo

Thanks for the responses people. The bank seems to think that the payment will simply be rejected and be returned to the sender but this will take 6 working days in total. I think that's quite ridiculous in this day and age!!

I will not rest until I see the money back in the account! This was supposed to be used as a deposit for a house purchase!

As for account re-allocation does any one know for sure how long it is before closed account numbers are re-used if at all? It looks like in the story of the guy in the link above that this occurred 6 years after he closed his account.

dalesrider

bingobanjo wrote: »

Thanks for the responses people. The bank seems to think that the payment will simply be rejected and be returned to the sender but this will take 6 working days in total. I think that's quite ridiculous in this day and age!!
.

Did you ring the bank that the payment went to?

As it will be sat in a internal acc and they may simply be able to redirect it to the correct acc for you.

bingobanjo

Yes we spoke to the bank on the after the payment was issued and were told it would be returned but would take 6 days. So what is the general policy to return it or to hold on to it? Will check with them again...

BASFORDLAD

I wouldnt be accepting that, I woukd be ringing your old bank and see what they say

dalesrider

bingobanjo wrote: »

Yes we spoke to the bank on the after the payment was issued and were told it would be returned but would take 6 days. So what is the general policy to return it or to hold on to it? Will check with them again...

Most likely as it is a manual process. As well as at certain times of the month there will be a lot of these payments to clear as it will include DD's & SO's.