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

BlindLeadingTheBlind

I've read this thread with interest as I am currently pursuing a complaint with Halifax/Lloyds on this very matter. When completing the on-line bank transfer form you are asked first for the name of the recipient, then the sort code and then the account number, there is also an optional reference field. When the subsequent payment successful page appears it advises you have successfully paid your named recipient and the name is in large font and highlighting colour and followed in brackets in small font and black is the sort code and account number. No where on either form does it advise me that the bank totally ignores the name of the recipient. The fact it appears first and highlighted actually gives me the payer the reassurance that I'm paying the right person. My point is if the bank chooses to ignore the very first piece of information I give them to complete my payment instruction and the payment does not end up in the right person's account why should the risk fall to me?

Archi_Bald

There are good reasons why IT systems cannot check that the name(s) entered belong to a given sort code and account number. If you search the forum you can find some discussion about it.

Lloyds do display a message

Please check you have entered the sort code and account number correctly to avoid lost payments. Our payment systems use both of these details and they are not checked against the name

Halifax (and BoS), who are sharing the Lloyds systems but have their own web interface, only say

Check the payment details below to make sure they're correct and avoid lost payments

I agree that banks should do more to tell people that names are being ignored but it is near criminal that they don't help people by checking that the sort code and account number entered are indeed valid. As we know from the postcodeanywhere website, it is dead easy for any IT system to check the validity.

YorkshireBoy

Archi_Bald wrote: »

As we know from the postcodeanywhere website, it is dead easy for any IT system to check the validity.

The problem is that account numbers may be re-allocated to new customers when accounts are closed.

Obviously they don't do this straight away though.

At the end of the day, you're asked at least twice during the transaction if the details you've entered are correct. So twice you've said they are (by clicking 'submit' AND 'confirm'. Other than forcing you to click two more buttons (asking exactly the same question again!), or, as is often the case when confirming an e-mail address on an online form, typing the entire details again, what more can the banks do?

Re names, as has been discussed on here before, names are not workable for computers due to the different permutations, eg:

Victoria Smith
V Smith
Vicky Smith
Mrs V Smith
Mrs Victoria Smith
Vicky Louise Smith
Etc
Etc

BlindLeadingTheBlind

I'd used the Halifax system and you're quite correct Archi Bald it does say "Check the payment details below to make sure they're correct and avoid lost payments." I did indeed insert the name, sort code and Account no given to me by the payee.....or so I thought. Unfortunately, his email account had been compromised and a fraudster had replaced the sort code and account number with his own. The fact the bank's on-line system explicitly tells me I've paid a named individual when in reality they have no idea who I've paid is totally misleading. I find it laughable that in response to my question to Lloyds as to why they ask for the name if they don't use it, I was told, "The information entered for the name of recipient is used so that the payment can easily be identified when making a query as the account details alone would make it difficult to know who the payment would be intended for."

dotdash79

HSBC clearly state that they only use the sort code and the account number and the name is for your benefit for payment identifercation

dotdash79

Santanders on-line twitter team are very good, and helpful.

the only team that is any good in Santander.

Gromitt

BlindLeadingTheBlind wrote: »

I find it laughable that in response to my question to Lloyds as to why they ask for the name if they don't use it, I was told, "The information entered for the name of recipient is used so that the payment can easily be identified when making a query as the account details alone would make it difficult to know who the payment would be intended for."

Why do you find that laughable? I'd much rather say "I made a payment recently to a Mr Bloggs" rather than "I made a payment recently to sort code 400530, account number 02206382". I find that the former is much easier to communicate, don't you think? Likewise, I'd rather have "Mr Bloggs" on my statement than 40053002206382.

John1993_2

BlindLeadingTheBlind wrote: »

I've read this thread with interest as I am currently pursuing a complaint with Halifax/Lloyds on this very matter. When completing the on-line bank transfer form you are asked first for the name of the recipient, then the sort code and then the account number, there is also an optional reference field. When the subsequent payment successful page appears it advises you have successfully paid your named recipient

Yes, the name is for your refference, so you can remember which payments you made to whom. The "reference" is for the payee, so that they can know what it's for or who it's from, and then the sort code and account number are your instruction for where it goes.

You've basically sent an amount of money, freely, to an unknown person, yet you seem to want to place the blame on the bank. I don't think that it's reasonable to hold them accountable for your own actions.

BlindLeadingTheBlind

If the bank is using the account payee's name for its customer's reference purposes only then Halifax should say so in a clear and prominent way on the on-line payment page. It would seem from other comments here that some banks do precisely this. I for one had no idea the account payee's name was not used to identify the correct recipient of the funds! Why should it be taken for granted that I am knowledgeable in internal banking procedures? What the current system does is afford the on-line payment transaction a misleading level of security.

StuC75

That sounds unbelievably elaborate!.. how a fraudster would intercept the mail he sent to you , replacing with his own is a little far fetched.

BlindLeadingTheBlind wrote: »

.....or so I thought. Unfortunately, his email account had been compromised and a fraudster had replaced the sort code and account number with his own. QUOTE]