Cheque paid into wrong account

dialhill

Hi All,
I was given a Barclays cheque by a small local company which I paid into my Santander current account in an envelope through a Post Office counter. When some weeks later I found this cheque had not gone into my account I contacted Santander and found that I'd used a paying-in slip for a Santander account which I had closed 8 months previously. They had no trace of the cheque and advised me that I needed the cheque to be cancelled and re-issued. I had a delay of several weeks before being able to see the person who had given me the cheque, who now told me that it had actually been debited from his account 8 days after he had given it to me. He gave me a copy of the Barclays bank statement verifying this but said he could not help me further - he hadn't suffered any loss. I again contacted Santander to tell them that the cheque had been cashed - but not to any of my existing accounts. They directed me again to the issuer of the cheque, who understandably isn't particularly eager to try and sort my problem. I have contacted Barclays to try and see why my cheque was processed when it appears that the account to which I requested it to be paid doesn't exist. Not being their customer, they also suggested I speak to the issuer of the cheque to ask him to discuss it with them! So far unsuccessful. Any advice as to where to go next?

PeacefulWaters

The issuer of the cheque can request a copy cheque, usually for a small fee, which will confirm where the money ended up.

Shakin_Steve

You, of course, should offer to pay this small fee, the cheque issuer has done nothing wrong.

jonesMUFCforever

I agree with the above posts - get a copy of the front and back of the cheque - the back will have the sort code and account number of the account it went into.
Another possibility of course is that you only thought you had closed the account and in fact the cheque has been credited to said account.

dialhill

The problem is, the banks direct me to the cheque issuer, who has already helped and does not want to spend any more time on someone elses problem. It was Santander that informed me that the account I had tried to use was closed. Can't the banks speak to each other?

xylophone

The person who drew the cheque has confirmed that the money has been debited from his account and provided you with a copy of his account page.

Ideally you would do as suggested above and ask him to request a copy of the paid cheque and offer to pay any charge made by his bank.

Did you complete a personalised paying in slip when you paid in the cheque?

dialhill

Thanks for the replies, but the cheque issuer is not now responding to me - as stated, he thinks he has already spent enough time on on a problem not of his own doing. We had previous conversations and he is aware that any charges would be payable by me. I used a standard bank giro credit slip - I don't know how it could be personalised.

Shakin_Steve

dialhill wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, but the cheque issuer is not now responding to me - as stated, he thinks he has already spent enough time on on a problem not of his own doing. We had previous conversations and he is aware that any charges would be payable by me. I used a standard bank giro credit slip - I don't know how it could be personalised.

A personalised slip would be one with your details already printed on it. For instance, one from the back of a chequebook or a book of paying in slips.

dialhill

Yes it was from a book of paying-in slips. Unfortunately should have been thrown away when that particular account was closed!

System

I would suspect that the cheque and deposit slip were sent for processing - but only the latter was rejected.

Santander should have sent both back to you when the account didn't exist.

You can push them to look into this further (via the complaints process) but the only the copy cheque (from Barclays) will provide definitive evidence if they dig their heels in.

dialhill

Thanks Heng Leng. Will try the complaints process. The mistake was mine, but surely the transaction shouldn't have been processed.