Missing ££ after being sent to closed Nationwide account, banks refusing to properly look for it

adviceplease2020

I set up a FlexDirect Nationwide account in Sept. I got an email on Sept. 28 welcoming me to the account, then on Sept. 30 saying I'd been rejected and then within the same minute on Sept. 30, saying "welcome" again. I then also got a welcome pack with my account number and sort code so I downloaded the banking app and transferred two lots of £750 on two different days. The first one bounced back but the second one didn't. After a lot of back and forth (including months of even getting the banks to look into it), the money is still missing and now both sides have washed their hands of it. They also wouldn't tell me what their official policy is on these matters and Nationwide has declined to say what lengths it has gone to to try and find the money. It wouldn't tell me, for example, if these account numbers had been reallocated to someone else and if they had looked there. I believe the delay made recovering the money less likely. I've now gone to the Ombudsman but delays are huge. Has anyone got any advice on what else I can do or how best to proceed? Thank you in advance 

csgohan4

sadly need to wait for the ombudsman

wizzards

There is quite a good guide on the which site on steps you can take
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-do-i-get-money-back-that-ive-sent-to-the-wrong-account
When you tell your bank or building society you've made a mistake and sent money to the wrong account, they should take action within two working days under the ‘misdirected payments’ code of best practice.

Unfortunately a long time has passed since the issue has occurred.  I assume you have made a clear complaint in writing to the banks complaints department. 

Have you followed your banks formal complaints procedure ?   If you go to the Ombudsman and you haven't followed a formal complaints procedure you may end up getting nowhere after a very long wait.  You can check if the account numbers and sort code are still valid by looking on a site such as https://www.sortcodes.co.uk/ which will check them.
You say you transferred £750 but you don't say where from.  If the payment was rejected it will be the originating bank that you should be chasing as the payment is likely to have been returned.   Just because it shows it has gone from the originating account doesn't guarantee that it wasn't returned.   The fact that it bounced once suggests that it probably bounced the second time as well.  However the worst case scenario is that account number was allocated to another customer and they have your £750 but I think thats unlikely.