Sending money to the wrong bank account

sworrubs

Hello - hoping someone can point me in the right direction: I'm on the receiving end of money not owed to me and I'm at a loss as to how to give it back!
Have contacted the bank (Santander) who have essentially said "the payer hasn't asked for it back so we won't do anything". I'm not really one to say "well, can't say I didn't try!" as it feels very odd that I can't absolve myself of this position!

Any light shedding would be greatly appreciated!
Scott

JuicyJesus

sworrubs wrote: »

Hello - hoping someone can point me in the right direction: I'm on the receiving end of money not owed to me and I'm at a loss as to how to give it back!
Have contacted the bank (Santander) who have essentially said "the payer hasn't asked for it back so we won't do anything". I'm not really one to say "well, can't say I didn't try!" as it feels very odd that I can't absolve myself of this position!

Any light shedding would be greatly appreciated!
Scott

There's little you can do. Ringfence the money in a savings account and don't spend it. If nobody comes to you after six years (yes really) then it's yours.

Alternatively spend it but be well prepared to give it back at a moment's notice.

Shakin_Steve

From Barclays T&C's, from April 1st:

If money is paid into your account by mistake
Sometimes a payment may be recalled by the bank that made it (for example, because the person who paid you did not have enough money, or it was fraudulent), and sometimes a payment goes into your account by mistake.
This happens rarely, but please keep an eye on your account, and tell us straight away if money appears in it that seems to be a mistake. This is because, to make things right, we can take the payment back out of your account – even if we have allowed you to make a payment or to take cash out against it.
We don’t have to tell you before we take the payment back. We will return the payment, even if you have spent the money. If this means any of our charges are triggered, we will still apply them (for example, an Emergency Borrowing Fee).

sworrubs

...Yay...

Thanks for the replies, to add a twist to the tale it was into my business account and my DIY accountancy skills are definitely going to need some help with this!

ChopperST

I wonder if anyone can help as Santander weren't much.

Someone has tried to send me money to my Santander account but got 1 digit in the sort code wrong (account number was correct).

Santander have advised me that the payee has to inform their bank of the error and they can iniate a recall if its possible. What the Santander advisor couldn't tell me though was whether Santander account numbers are unique or if someone could have the same account number as me with a different sort code?

Thanks for any help.

Cornucopia

Santander only have a handful of sort codes for retail customers (unlike the original clearing banks who generally have one sort code per branch).

On that basis, I would have thought it was quite likely that different accounts sometimes had the same account number with different sort codes.

ChopperST

Cornucopia wrote: »

Santander only have a handful of sort codes (unlike the original clearing banks who generally have one sort code per branch).

On that basis, I would have thought it was quite likely that different accounts sometimes had the same account number with different sort codes.

Thanks for the quick reply. Fortunately the monies were returned.

SnowTiger

ChopperST wrote: »

I wonder if anyone can help as Santander weren't much.

Someone has tried to send me money to my Santander account but got 1 digit in the sort code wrong (account number was correct).

Santander have advised me that the payee has to inform their bank of the error and they can iniate a recall if its possible. What the Santander advisor couldn't tell me though was whether Santander account numbers are unique or if someone could have the same account number as me with a different sort code?

Santander seems to use only one sort code for standard bank accounts: 09-01-28.

As only one digit was incorrect, it's likely that the account number was invalid.

You can check whether the sort code and account number is potentially valid here: https://www.sortcodes.co.uk/.

Even if it's valid, it may not have been assigned to any one.

GeorgeSan

We wire Euros but we did it to wrong account number. However company who received the money Rejected two days later and advice to us that money was received by mistake.

We informed to our bank that wire was wrong inmediately, Five days later our Bank inform that there is a problem because the account that received the money was in Dollar and the bank who received the money convert from Euro to Dollar. They say that to back money require an aunthorization from us to convert again from Dollar to Euro and in this case we will lost around 6k Euro in all transaction.

We have accept to pay administrative expenses but never to convert from Euro to Dollar and from Dollar to Euro again. Our negotiation with our Bank was in Euro and after 4 weeks we have not received our money and we need to wire to rigth account.

We appreciate information about what to do and what are our rigths. Thank You.

jonesMUFCforever

GeorgeSan wrote: »

We wire Euros but we did it to wrong account number. However company who received the money Rejected two days later and advice to us that money was received by mistake.

We informed to our bank that wire was wrong inmediately, Five days later our Bank inform that there is a problem because the account that received the money was in Dollar and the bank who received the money convert from Euro to Dollar. They say that to back money require an aunthorization from us to convert again from Dollar to Euro and in this case we will lost around 6k Euro in all transaction.

We have accept to pay administrative expenses but never to convert from Euro to Dollar and from Dollar to Euro again. Our negotiation with our Bank was in Euro and after 4 weeks we have not received our money and we need to wire to rigth account.

We appreciate information about what to do and what are our rigths. Thank You.

You say YOU wired funds - is that right? Did you input the details yourself or did you take a form down to the bank to process?
Either way once the bank has processed the payment then it is almost too late to recall the payment especially if it was a SEPA.

If the bank processed the payment exactly as you originally asked them then you have no recourse to the loss in exchange rate in unravelling it.