Transfer of funds to wrong account

Magroo

Hi there, recently my sister made several transfers to the wrong bank account to the tune of around £1,000. The other bank account have never owned up and actually she was doing a really lovely thing trying to help someone through a tough financial time by depositing money to them secretly. She just found out recently and Santander have said they will not help her to recover the money. Does anyone have any experience of this and any idea how we go about trying to get the money back. She accepts it is annoying mistake but she is also incredibly upset. Thanks!

innovate

How does your sister know she used the wrong account? Particularly if she sent it secretly? How did the secrecy work? Did the beneficiary not know they were getting money from your sister? Did your sister hide from someone else (partner etc) that she was sending the money?

Did the beneficiary tell her the money never arrived? What proof has your sister that the money went to someone else? What exactly made the money go into someone else's account? How long has your sister made the payments before she found out they didn't reach the intended destination? How exactly did your sister find out the money never got there? What has your sister done to recover the money?

So many unanswered questions.

Magroo

She found out it was the wrong account number as she ended up needing to transfer some money to my Mum as she owed it to her for one reason or another. My Mum asked my sister if she had done it, she said yes and my Mum still had not received it. They then checked account numbers to discover my sister had the payment set up wrong and this is when she checked with my Mum re previous payments. She had been paying them in for approximately 12 - 18 months. My sister was doing it and thought she was getting it past my Mum, feeling good that my Mum had not noticed and she felt like she was helping. The bank have confirmed it has gone to another account and that the other person has drawn it out. They said they were going to recover the money and then have changed their minds.

innovate

Magroo wrote: »

They said they were going to recover the money and then have changed their minds.

Why have they changed their minds? It must be said, though, that no bank has a responsibility to help you recover moey that you sent in error, particularly if you made the payments over a prolonged period (btw, was is 12 months or 18 months? bit of a difference).

Has your sister asked (in writing) the bank of the recipient to inform the recipient that the money was not intended for them and that she would like it back? What was the response of the recipient ?

It's probably unlikely that she will succeed because she made multiple payments over a prolonged period. Also there is so far no proof that she wasn't/isn't in cahoots with the recipient.

If the recipient declines to return the money, your sister could perhaps take them to the Small Claims Court for theft. She would need to go to the Police first, though, to report a crime. She would also probably have to get a Court injunction to get the name and address of the recipient, unless she knows already who it is.

Magroo

We don't know why they have changed their minds. She is not asking the bank to give her the money but to help her recover it from the recipient so there is no reason for her to be in cahoots with the person, she has no idea who it is and the bank are not allowed to release that information. The bank said they would help her by contacting the person and now they are saying they won't do that. She did write to the bank to ask, as they requested, she also had a meeting with them. They then sent her the letter they were meant to send to the recipient, so she had to contact them again to tell them they had made a mistake. They have now responded saying they are not going to contact the other person. Cheers.

innovate

So your sister should ask why the bank won't contact the recipent (nb I am assuming we are talking about the bank of the recipient - - - another bank couldn't make the contact since they wouldn't know who the recipient is).

If the bank does not provide a satisfactory answer within 8 weeks of asking, your sister can take her case to the FOS for further assessment.

grumbler

Magroo wrote: »

... They have now responded saying they are not going to contact the other person.

Refer them to their T&C

7.4 ...
In these circumstances we will use reasonable efforts
to recover any money paid out of your account or not
paid into your account as a result of the failed or
incorrect payment.

They obviously have not made any efforts yet, let alone reasonable.

Some other recent threads on this topic:
Refunding Bank Transfer to wrong details
Cash transferred into wrong account

matttye

grumbler wrote: »

Refer them to their T&C
They obviously have not made any efforts yet, let alone reasonable.

Some other recent threads on this topic:
Refunding Bank Transfer to wrong details
Cash transferred into wrong account

I read it as Santander being the OP's sister's bank rather than the recipient's, although I've reread the OP and it's not clear.

grumbler

I don't understand your point. The T&C cover the money both paid out erroneously and not paid in.

matttye

grumbler wrote: »

I don't understand your point. The T&C cover the money both paid out erroneously and not paid in.

My point being that no matter what, Santander is at the mercy of the recipient's bank as Satander doesn't know who the payee is (unless they're also with Santander).

Personally I'd find out which bank the details belong to and then cut out the middle man and approach the other bank directly.

meer53

matttye wrote: »

My point being that no matter what, Santander is at the mercy of the recipient's bank as Satander doesn't know who the payee is (unless they're also with Santander).

Personally I'd find out which bank the details belong to and then cut out the middle man and approach the other bank directly.

The other bank wouldn't discuss anything with the OP's sister, she has no relationship with them at all. They would refer her back to her own bank.