Building society Takeover

biggumboy

Hi,this is my first post so please bear with me.
My elderly parents held an account with the Cheshire Building society which has recently been taken over by the Nationwide.They have moved most of the incoming payments over to their new account but have found one for nearly £30 which is paid in by BACS transfer,the problem being,they have no idea where it comes from.It has been paid in since 2003 and try as they might,they cant find any paperwork for it.The Nationwide have now told them that if they dont provide a sort code of whoever pays it in,they will lose this money.
They have said that they cannot trace the payments origin and that if no details are provided,the money will simply be returned to the sender.How this will happen if they dont know where it comes from is beyond me!!!!
Any help as to tracing payment sources like this would be greatly appreciated,thankyou

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

I think whoever you spoke to didn't have a clue. If a payment comes in to your old Cheshire account it should be transferred to your new Nationwide account automatically. That's what computers are for.

Archi_Bald

Have your parents had any discussions with Nationwide regarding the source of this payment? If so, who initiated this discussion?

EarthBoy

biggumboy wrote: »

They have moved most of the incoming payments over to their new account but have found one for nearly £30 which is paid in by BACS transfer,the problem being,they have no idea where it comes from.It has been paid in since 2003 and try as they might,they cant find any paperwork for it.

If they don't know where the money is coming from then they can't be sure they are entitled to it. Somebody might have been paying it into their account by mistake for the last 11 years.

Armorica

My memory is fuzzy but:
- A Bacs 'trace' is used by the person sending the person to confirm where it has been applied to
- the 'Automated Return of Unapplied Credits' returns payments to the originator.

- Are you sure its Bacs and not Faster Payments? (The reason I ask is that most Standing Orders moved from Bacs to FPS a few years ago)
- For Bacs Direct Credits there will be an 6 digit originator number somewhere that will tell you who sent the payment.
- The information that appears on customers statements is only some of the data banks get; ask Cheshire/Nationwide for the full details of the transaction - there should be reference data (a name or the 6 digit number) that will help you identify who sent the payment - it is not necessarily getting pulled through onto the view you can see (or potentially the call centre...it will be in the full file of payments they are processing)

In some cases, you may just end up with the name of the bank who has been sending payments on behalf of the customer.

(And as the above says, are they actually entitled to it?)