paid into wrong account

katrina_rees

My son opened a new account. He transfered £6700 online banking and he put two digits the wrong way round. The money has gone into someone else's account not his own. He has contacted the bank and the haven't been very helpful and said he has to wait 20 days. Has anyone got any suggestions.

macman

The bank have to be given time to contact the account holder and ask them to voluntarily return the payment. They can't just take the money out and hand it back (even assuming it's still there), so 20 days is not unreasonable.
I fail to see how the bank have not been 'helpful', as this is not a bank error.

dunstonh

It is probable that the account number quoted does not belong to someone else. Account numbers are not sequential. It is certainly possible that the account is real but statistically unlikely.

If it is not real, it will be paid to a suspense account at the receiving bank. That bank will look to apply the credit to a genuine account if it can be matched from the info supplied. If not, it will return it to the paying bank who will in turn return it to the account it was debited from.

If the account is real, they will contact the account holder and ask them for the money to be returned.

He has contacted the bank and the haven't been very helpful

There is a limit to what they can do and when.

macman

OP has said that the payment has gone into someone else's account, so we have to assume that info is correct, and it's not in a suspense account.

Nasqueron

macman wrote: »

OP has said that the payment has gone into someone else's account, so we have to assume that info is correct, and it's not in a suspense account.

Well, we can assume yes, but equally the OP might have assumed that