Accidental payment to mystery account

pritchah

Through the Faster Payments service I accidentally transferred £90 from my Lloyds account to a Barclays account belonging to someone else.

When I discovered the error, I contacted Lloyds and we worked through the process advertised on the FPS site.

Lloyds contacted Barclays and then told me the latter couldn't help. We know where the payment has gone but think the account holder has spent it, which he shouldn't have.

Barclays local manager identified the account, so it does exist.

The Barclays account holder (I suspect is a corporate account) is being very uncooperative.

I think I might have to take legal action. Can the forum give advice on a) would it be worth it for £90, and b)how would I go about it?

Silvertabby

In theory the Barclays account holder who kept/spent the money is guilty of theft if they knew that the money hadn't been intended for them. Perhaps not so easy with such a small amount and a company account? If you want to pursue this, then you may be asked to prove that you didn't mean to pay the money to this company in the first place.

Think about it - if it were possible to pay a bill by bank transfer then tell the bank 'hey - I made a mistake - give me my money back' - then a lot of dubious bods would be trying it on.

Other than asking Lloyds/Barclays to pass on a letter the the receiving company, explaining your error and requesting a refund, then I fear that you may need to write this off to experience.

jonesMUFCforever

If it was a corporate customer don't you think it would have been returned to you as presumably they would have no idea who sent the money or why?
IMO it's a scroat who jumped in joy at getting free money and does not care about the consequences.

There is a legal way you can apply for to get Barclays to give you the name and address for the account but it will cost you a lot more than £90 and I guarantee you if you proceed there will be no money to be recovered in the end.

Harsh words but you have to write this off.

pritchah

There was actually a customer reference on the payment which would have identified me to the recipient. That's why i think it is a corporate account.

I had paid £2.50 to the same account about two years ago, but I'm blowed if i can remember what it is.

seashore22

If you've sent the money to a random account then the customer reference number will mean nothing to the recipient. They may not even have noticed it. Not everyone checks their bank accounts and they may have missed it entirely.

It's more than likely a private individual who spent the money before they even knew it was there. in the scheme of things £90 is a small amount and could be overlooked until the bank came calling.

bowb

I had this problem once. I went through the motion of asking my bank to ask his bank to return the money. After 21 days I had a letter from the second bank to say that the recipient had not responded to any of there letters so can't refund your money. It seems that the recipient has to give his bank permission to return your money.

seashore22

So this wasn't a mistake with the account number, it was a previous recipient who you selected in error?

You obviously use online banking. Can't you go back and see who this payment of £2.50 went to and find out where this £90 has gone now?

pritchah

The details for the £2.50 payment are the same as for the £90 one. I have sort code, account number and my customer ref.

Unfortunately I put the wrong label on the payment, if you see what I mean

Yorkshire_Pud

pritchah wrote: »

The details for the £2.50 payment are the same as for the £90 one. I have sort code, account number and my customer ref.

Unfortunately I put the wrong label on the payment, if you see what I mean

If you've got their bank details stored and recalled how can you not know who it is you paid?

pritchah

I labelled the payment wrongly in my list of payees on the Lloyds site . I thought I was transferring money to my regular everyday account but it's gone somewhere else. The £2.50 payment was a couple of years ago.

jonesMUFCforever

pritchah wrote: »

There was actually a customer reference on the payment which would have identified me to the recipient. That's why i think it is a corporate account.

I had paid £2.50 to the same account about two years ago, but I'm blowed if i can remember what it is.

If you look back on your statements and find the transaction will it not tell you who you paid?