Help! Paying money into closed bank account

Witchysooz

Hi

I'm hoping someone can help me.

On NYE we accidently paid a friend £160 from our Natwest account to his closed Halifax account.

We are struggling to get Halifax to pay us this money back. Natwest are unable to help stating that the beneficiary bank must return the money, Halifax are now saying that Natwest must contact them to retrieve the money. Natwest say this isn't the process.

We have spoken to many people at Halifax most of the time they say due to data protection they can't discuss the closed account with us. Our friend has gone into the bank but he has been passed from team to team being told a different thing each time.

Has this happened to anyone before? Is Halifax entitled to keep our money? Technically it belongs to either our friend who now banks with HSBC or us at Natwest not Halifax.

I'm not sure of our next step now..

rb10

It's down to Natwest to retrieve the money. Given that they've given you dud information so far, I'd suggest making a formal complaint - there is a form on their website for this.

That's normally the only way of getting Natwest to complete most requests.

jonesMUFCforever

Assuming this was a faster payment from Nat West then if the Halifax account was closed it should have bounced back.
If this has not happened then one of the banks has to have it in a suspense account.
I would suggest a written complaint to the CEO of both banks and see which one finds the money first!

DigForVictory

It'll be sat in a suspense account. Their books cannot & will not balance until its sorted.

A complaint should/will/may (delete according to optimisim/proximity to Ombudsman) clarify where it Ought to be.

All the best!

treenie01

This has happened to me today. I have spoken to Halifax and they can't even talk to me over the phone about my account because it is not coming up on their system and have told me that I need to go into the branch. I have no card or anything for them anymore so I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do next.

Aquamania

treenie01 wrote: »

This has happened to me today. I have spoken to Halifax and they can't even talk to me over the phone about my account because it is not coming up on their system and have told me that I need to go into the branch. I have no card or anything for them anymore so I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do next.

Like a Halifax branch accesses a different computer system to that available by telephone banking. :cool:

Contact the creditor and sort something out between you.

treenie01

I'm just worried that they'll lose their money. I've told them I will try to find out what's going on my end and they have my other account number now but understandably they won't pay the money until they have the money already sent back.

treenie01

Aquamania wrote: »

Like a Halifax branch accesses a different computer system to that available by telephone banking. :cool:

Contact the creditor and sort something out between you.

plus I'm going to have the same issue with Halifax as I had with Nationwide this week. My Halifax account is my old student account and therefore in my maiden name. So they'll probably decide that they won't deal with me because my ID is in a different name.

ERICS_MUM

I'm going back years so might not be correct nowadays. I used to work for a bank and in your situation Nat West should contact Halifax with a "Beneficiary claims non-receipt" query. Halifax then need to find the money and if they can't apply it to the account (closed) refund to Nat West who should re-credit your account so you can start again.

jonesMUFCforever

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

I'm going back years so might not be correct nowadays. I used to work for a bank and in your situation Nat West should contact Halifax with a "Beneficiary claims non-receipt" query. Halifax then need to find the money and if they can't apply it to the account (closed) refund to Nat West who should re-credit your account so you can start again.

I take it this was way before faster payments then?

ERICS_MUM

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I take it this was way before faster payments then?

guilty as charged ! Nevertheless the principle is the same. The money was sent and is sitting somewhere, all payments are trackable from end to end, it just needs someone to want to find it.