Metro Bank - £700 Transferred from Account

Ben8282

movnik894 wrote: »

Hello,
I am writing for some advice please on behalf of my partner who I feel has lost the will to live after this.
.

Opening your post with powerful emotional triggers such as this is not helpful.

Has anybody ever considered simply contacting whoever the money was sent to and politely requesting return of the payment sent to them in error? For all we know they may be as concerned as you are at having this unexpected transfer turn up in their account and be anxious to be rid of the money in case they should be accused of something and have their account closed as seems to be happening so frequently.

What is the branch managers version of events? Presumably that instead of asking to transfer the funds to his own Barclays account your partner requested the transfer be made to this third party. But has been pointed out, you should have been given some form of printed confirmationi of the transfer. Why did this not occur?

Why does your partner not take his business to a proper bank where he can make his own transfers between his own accounts online?

movnik894

Hi All, Thanks for your comments.


Firstly the letter states: they haven't found sufficient grounds to support our complaint. We were advised to make a payment recall which was not processed. And indeed they have referred us to the Financial Ombudsman.



My partner and the payee has the first two initials the same. I have also discovered that he did sign the form without checking @ Weybridge78 which doesn't help the case.



If it was as easy to contact the person who received the money, we would have done that straight away but we don't have their details anymore and we cannot track them down on the site we originally purchased from them on.



Based on all of the above; does that mean we have lost the money completely?

eskbanker

movnik894 wrote: »

Firstly the letter states: they haven't found sufficient grounds to support our complaint. We were advised to make a payment recall which was not processed. And indeed they have referred us to the Financial Ombudsman.

My partner and the payee has the first two initials the same. I have also discovered that he did sign the form without checking @ Weybridge78 which doesn't help the case.

Indeed - if they misheard your partner but he authorised the transaction to the wrong place then his mistake effectively overrides theirs. Unfortunately that validation is exactly what the form-signing is for, so I can't see that he has a legitimate complaint against the bank to be honest.

movnik894 wrote: »

If it was as easy to contact the person who received the money, we would have done that straight away but we don't have their details anymore and we cannot track them down on the site we originally purchased from them on.

Based on all of the above; does that mean we have lost the money completely?

The misdirected payment process is explained at http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/press-release/new-help-customers-recover-payments-sent-error - the banks communicate with each other but ultimately it relies on the cooperation of the recipient. The process takes 20 working days, i.e. four weeks, so should be approaching its end soon.

sal_III

movnik894 wrote: »

My partner and the payee has the first two initials the same. I have also discovered that he did sign the form without checking @ Weybridge78 which doesn't help the case.

In that case it's classed as misdirected payment, authorised by your partner who signed the form. So it's not a bank mistake, it's his own.

You have slim chances of recovering the money, but it will be best endeavour on both Metro bank and the recipient bank. You have no legal recourse or a base for complaint.

movnik894

I thought as much.


Thank you for your comments and advice. I appreciate it.

18cc

Just to try and help again - I believe it is a criminal offence for the payee to keep the money knowing it was sent in error (which I presume they do because their bank should have contacted them as a result of your bank asking for the money back) so in theory (but probably not in practice) you could try the police.

If you can get a crime reference number you might be able to ask the receiving bank to disclose details of the recipient.

Once you know this you can sue them in the small claims court (easy, online procedure)

Another possibility might be to contact the site you used and ask if they have the seller's contact details.

badger09

If the misdirected payment process fails, and you can't trace the recipient any other way, you could try this as a last resort:


https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/10/good-samaritan-finds-man-s-wallet---and-gets-in-touch-with-him-v/

colsten

The conclusion must be that it was your partner's fault, not Metro's, so going to the FOS won't yield any money.

If you have the recipient's name and address, your partner can take them to the Small Claims Court

movnik894

Thanks again for the suggestions. I have fired them all over to my partner. However he has just received a call from Metro Bank saying the money should be in his account within the next 15 days. They received our letter to the CEO.
Based on previous experience with my partner getting into a pickle and maybe not relaying the whole story, I will still be looking at the FO amongst other suggestions.
I am hoping Metro Bank will also send a letter to back up what they said so I can have it in black and white.
I will say for now, watch this space and if I have an update - good or bad, I will come back to this Board with it.

jonesMUFCforever

If they are saying 'within' 15 days it seems to me they just have asked the wrong payee's bank to obtain a refund in order it can be sent back to Metro. No guarantees otherwise they would have just put the money back from one of their own accounts.

I could be wrong but contacting the CEO does not seem to have made them do anything they would not have done anyway.
Hope you get the money back.