Wages paid by mistake into wrong bank account

catherine_s_2

Hi there, I'm hoping I can get some advice as I am pulling out my hair at the moment.

About 3 months ago I opened a new bank account with A&L, as I owed £1500 to Smile for an overdraft. As I also owe money on a loan and credit card, I'm in the process of setting up a DMP.

The problem is, due to some error, my wages for this month have been paid into my old Smile account (even though the last 3 months have gone in ok to A&L). So, my wages have now been swallowed up by what I owe to Smile, and now I have no money whatsoever to live on. I can't pay my rent, travel to and from work, buy food or even make the first DMP payment.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do, as I'm sure Smile won't return the payment to my company, as they will just want it to partly clear what I owe them.

I'm really upset and don't know what to do.

Thanks for listening!

immoral_angeluk

Have you talked to your payroll department to see what can be done?

catherine_s_2

Well, my manager (who deals with payroll) is on her way into the office now. I guess I'm just looking on the bad side and expecting them not to help. I'll post again after I've spoken to her. Thanks!

immoral_angeluk

If it was their error then they've got to sort it out. Don't worry I'm sure it'll all get sorted out.

magni

I hope they get it sorted for you.

catherine_s_2

Hi Magni and Immoral Angel,

Just wanted to say thanks. Managed to get it sorted. My payroll manager couldn't do anything, so I had to call Smile, who were surprisingly fab on the phone. They have transferred the money (less my token payment until my DMP kicks in) to my new account, so at least I can survive now!

Thanks for the support!!!

mrsspendalot

That is good news! and very understanding of Smile!

myrnahaz

I'm sure it must be a nightmare for this to happen, unfortunately it's quite an easy mistake for payroll people to make - if I add an employee's new bank account details to my 'pay bills' list on the works' internet bank, I can't delete the old details so their old account number remains 'live' on the bank list for around 50 weeks, so it's a nightmare trying to work out which is the right account to use (and there are only a handful of people on my list). This is probably what happened to the OP - her payroll person just clicked on the wrong bank account number. I've checked with the bank to see if the old details can be removed (I do this easily for old Direct Debits etc) but they say that there's nothing that can be done - it's ridiculous.