Mysterious ISA payment being reclaimed

cptSparko

I have an ISA Saver Account with Halifax. It had about £30 in it.

In the middle of April the account was credited with £3000 - however, I DID NOT make the deposit. I have no idea who did.

The money has been sitting in the ISA building up interest. Today I received a letter from Halifax saying:

"We have been advised that a standing order payment of £3000 has been credited to your account in error. The originating bank has requested the return of the funds so I should be grateful if you would complete the enclosed Request for Withdrawal so that we can make this refund."

I've not withdrawn any of the cash expecting something like this to happen! Theoretically this has stopped me from being able to make a deposit of my own into the ISA - so I should at least get to keep the interest accrued?!?

But what should I do now? Do I HAVE to pay it ALL back?

cheerfulcat

Yes, of course you must pay back the £3000. But I would get it in writing from the Halifax a) that this mistake was made by them, and b) that it will not affect your ISA allowance for this year. Regarding the interest, they may make a good will gesture and allow you to keep it - it's certainly worth asking.

codetown

I would certainly NOT agree to sign any "Request for Withdrawal".

THe point is not if the money needs to go back (it does, as it is not yours!), but what methods Halifax uses. Be careful to:

a) Clarify with them that you wish to keep your ISA allowance in full for this new year as allowed by the government.
b) Clarify that you have NOT caused the wrong deposit and you wish not to sign any withdrawal form! You are not withdrawing anything!
This is important for keeping the door open to future deposits during the year!!!
c) Ask them to apply any emergency or man-made error procedure they must have in place to manually correct things and then send back to you a written official records of facts to keep for the future, as it might become important if you have to transfer your ISA somewherelse. Threaten to have this done within 15 days or you will write to the Financial Obundsman for a compensation.
d) Mention that you wish to receive 50 pounds in compensation for the mistake as the statement with the ISA funding made you confuse and loose a month of interest on a possible investment you woud have done if the money was not there already!

RayWolfe

codetown wrote: »

Threaten to have this done within 15 days or you will write to the Financial Obundsman for a compensation.
d) Mention that you wish to receive 50 pounds in compensation for the mistake

Good grief!
All that good advice and then all this rubbish.
Get a grip of yourself, this does not require any COMPENSATION!

obsessed_saver

Why not? Banks charge £25 or more for "errors" on your part. Forgetting to pay the credit card on time, forgetting that you're near the overdraft limit and make a withdrawal, etc.

With

I'm surprised by the notion that you wouldn't have to give all of it back - it isn't yours. As long as your allowance for the year is OK (in writing) that's that. Didn't you think of notifying them when you noticed it?

With regard to those Bank charges, I'm sure you can get most of them back, in fact, I'm sure there's a lot about it on this site too.

RayWolfe

obsessed_saver wrote: »

Why not? Banks charge £25 or more for "errors" on your part.

So this WAS a bank error, was it? You know, it is possible for other customers to quote wrong account numbers.
But even if it was a bank error, the OP needs no compensation when he has suffered no loss, no hardship, no reason for compensation.
We are drowning in people demanding compensation ... and it's costing the rest of us, you included.

tom188

obsessed_saver wrote: »

Why not? Banks charge £25 or more for "errors" on your part. Forgetting to pay the credit card on time, forgetting that you're near the overdraft limit and make a withdrawal, etc.

Well apparently we can claim those back because they are "unlawful". So why cant the banks turn the tables and say the same.

codetown

RayWolfe wrote: »

Good grief!
All that good advice and then all this rubbish.
Get a grip of yourself, this does not require any COMPENSATION!

RayWolfe, either you don't know what you are talking about or you have never seen what happens in a bank...

In either of the two cases I would suggest you keep the tone down and your comments for yourself.

I have had many cases in which a bank caused me much lower inconvenience than what presented in this case. I always wrote a letter asking reasons and pretending to be listened.
I often had direct meetings with the branch managers and they always gave me compensation for my time (which IS VERY important differently from what you believe!!!) and for making me 'forget' about the problems I had with their bank...

If your relationship with banks is of a low level and if you cannot fight to get a service which does NOT create inconvenience and annoyances, then please keep your comments for yourself. I am frank and if a bank makes me waste 4-5 hours to sort a problem I did not create and does not compensate me, I leave them!

My suggestion is based on my personal experience of successes to get compensations for errors which I had NOT created.
And I cannot care less who created the problem in the first place!
If I loose my time (reading letters, filling forms, getting more information on this problem, maybe even visiting my local branch...) and perhaps loose my allowance for somebody's else mistake, I NEED to be compensated! There is no IF and not BUT. THe compensation is the MINIMUM the bank can do to alleviate the inconvenience and my time wasting!

If you are not used to ask compensation, talking to your bank and suggest others not to do it, then you are in the wrong forum and site!

debbie42

codetown wrote: »

If I loose my time (reading letters, filling forms, getting more information on this problem, maybe even visiting my local branch...) and perhaps loose my allowance for somebody's else mistake, I NEED to be compensated! There is no IF and not BUT. THe compensation is the MINIMUM the bank can do to alleviate the inconvenience and my time wasting!

Someone earlier had made the quite valid comment that this may not have been the bank's error. It could quite feasibly have been someone paying into the account in error. If that was the case then I don't see that there is any case for compensation.

newmum1

At the end of the day we live in a compensation culture, so i suppose its whatever makes you comfortable, if you feel you are owed then go for it, if not then dont, you need to look at any problems that you have faced through this or may face in the future.