Help please!!! transferred £300 into the wrong account.

YorkshireBoy

alimahat wrote: »

I contacted my bank who said to contact Lloyds.

Called Santander (my bank) again and was again told that they cannot help.

What do I do now??

After this has been resolved (if indeed it is) you make a formal complaint to Santander, citing their failure to comply with the Payment Services Regulations 2009, specifically regulation 74-(2)(a)...

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/209/pdfs/uksi_20090209_en.pdf (page 43, see "Liability")

alimahat

Thanks, will definitely complain!!!

richardmk

This is from the Financial Ombudsmans Site
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/87/87-banking-complaints.htm
87/04
online banking – bill payment is credited to someone other than the intended recipient


Mr D used his bank’s online facilities to transfer £75 to a colleague, who had taken part in a sponsored bike-ride. He was unaware, at the time, that although he entered most of the details correctly, he made an error when entering the number of the account into which the money was to be paid.
Several weeks later he contacted his bank, after discovering that his colleague had not received the money. The bank traced the payment and found it had been credited to a third party – whose account number matched the one Mr D had entered in error.
Mr D accepted that he had made an error with the account number. However, the details of the name on the account had been correct. He therefore could not understand why the bank had not spotted the mismatch and queried it, before paying the money into the ‘wrong’ account.
Mr D wanted the bank to reimburse him for the lost payment. The bank refused, on the grounds that he, not the bank, had made the mistake. Mr D challenged this. He said that if the bank always sent payments to the account number entered online – even where this did not match the other details provided – then there should be a warning about this on the website.
The bank rejected Mr D’s complaint. It said it had not been under any obligation to check the payment details he had entered online. Unhappy with this response, Mr D brought his complaint to us.
complaint upheld
We examined the bank’s process for the online payment of bills. Banking industry guidance states that consumers should be specifically warned if payments will be processed and credited using just the account number. There was no such warning on the bank’s website. We therefore told the bank to reimburse Mr D for the £75 payment

Wywth

alimahat wrote: »

.... I have contacted Lloyds and they said that for data protection reasons, they cannot help me and that I should go to my bank...

alimahat wrote: »

Hi, thanks for this, I have checked and the account is valid, what do I do now??

How did you manage to check that??? :huh:

YorkshireBoy

Wywth wrote: »

How did you manage to check that??? :huh:

Presumably by clicking the link provided in post #4?

ffacoffipawb

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Presumably by clicking the link provided in post #4?

I just entered a sort code and account number of my first bank account (hence why I remember it), which I closed in 1993 - 20 years ago (switched from Nat West to First Direct to get 9% net interest on my current account and 12% net on instant access savings - how times have changed!).

It came back as valid. Is this because:-

(1) It is now someone else's account and sort code;

or

(2) That website just does a checksum to check validity but the account itself may not actually exist.

marty2be2000

These systems know valid ranges of account numbers at various branches, all they do is tell you that there is a good chance that the account is at the branch entered. The online checker does not have a definitive list of live accounts at each branch.

anotheruser

pqrdef wrote: »

Try to get your own back on Santander. Cause them as much expense and inconvenience as possible and then switch banks.

Yes, because we all want to act like that and throw our toys out the pram, good grief!

alimahat wrote: »

Thanks, will definitely complain!!!

Complain about what? Your mistake?

matttye

anotheruser wrote: »

Complain about what? Your mistake?

As posted earlier by YorkshireBoy,

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/209/pdfs/uksi_20090209_en.pdf (page 43, see "Liability")

"Incorrect unique identifiers
74.—(1) Where a payment order is executed in accordance with the unique identifier, the
payment order is deemed to have been correctly executed by each payment service provider
involved in executing the payment order with respect to the payee specified by the unique
identifier.
(2) Where the unique identifier provided by the payment service user is incorrect, the payment
service provider is not liable under regulation 75 or 76 for non-execution or defective execution of
the payment transaction, but the payment service provider—
(a) must make reasonable efforts to recover the funds involved in the payment transaction;
and
(b) may, if agreed in the framework contract, charge the payment service user for any such
recovery."

All Santander have done is said they can't help. That isn't "reasonable efforts to recover the funds involved in the payment transaction."

Therefore a complaint is warranted.

YorkshireBoy

matttye wrote: »

All Santander have done is said they can't help. That isn't "reasonable efforts to recover the funds involved in the payment transaction."

Better than that (in terms of complaint outcome), they said it twice!

The FOS come down hard on financial institutions who fob off their customers, and especially those who do it repeatedly, from my reading of their case files.

I think Santander will go out of their way (if you know what I mean ) to try to stop this complaint getting to the FOS.