Money sent to wrong account

Beckydev

Not sure if this is the right thread to post in but here goes. 

Hubby is self employed and has just sent bank details for a job he has done. 
He sent our account number with a double 6 instead of 8, the client has paid it into the wrong account. 
Any advice on what we can do to get it back?
Its a santander to a santander. 
Our santander account won't let us send anything unless the details match but this guy said nothing came up on his online banking to say it didn't match. 
Thanks

Yahoo_Mail

You won't be able to do anything as you didn't send it. The client will need to speak to Santander.  I wouldn't expect much though, the funds were sent to the account number the client was given so they're not to blame.

I wonder if the fact it was a Santander to Santander payment and wouldn't have gone via Faster Payments is the reason why there was no CoP.

Beckydev

If the client mentions to the bank they meant to pay hubby's name (which they would of put when sending it) and correct bank details (88 instead of 66) so name and details match, would we stand a chance of recovering anything? 
Client is all for ringing first thing
Thanks

Yahoo_Mail

Beckydev said:

If the client mentions to the bank they meant to pay hubby's name (which they would of put when sending it) and correct bank details (88 instead of 66) so name and details match, would we stand a chance of recovering anything? 
Client is all for ringing first thing
Thanks

Not really no.  The payment is unlikely to have been sent via FP (as both accounts were Santander) so it is unlikely that the Confirmation of Payee system would apply.

Beckydev

Not the news I was hoping for. 

Thanks for the reply 

Yahoo_Mail

Beckydev said:

Not the news I was hoping for. 

Thanks for the reply 

Well, Santander can ask the recipient to allow the money to be sent back, so it's not "gone" quite yet.

NottinghamKnight

There are a lot of unallocated account numbers also so it may not have actually gone to anyone. If the account doesn't exist it will go into a holding account and be sent back but that could take a few days. 

colsten

Beckydev said:

Our santander account won't let us send anything unless the details match but this guy said nothing came up on his online banking to say it didn't match. 

All banks let you send money to any account, whether the Confirmation Of Payee (COP) finds a match or not. You can ignore if there isn't a match. There will be a few warning messages, but you can click them all away.

It would be a great coincidence if an account number with just 2 digits difference existed within the same sort code, and an even greater coincidence if that account was held in the name of you and your husband. 

Unless your husband does indeed have and account with the other number, it is totally not true when the client says "nothing came up on his online banking to say it didn't match". Santander will, by default, carry out a COP check on payments to other Santander accounts.

Are you sure that both, the client and your husband are telling you the truth?

Beckydev

colsten said:

Beckydev said:

Our santander account won't let us send anything unless the details match but this guy said nothing came up on his online banking to say it didn't match. 

All banks let you send money to any account, whether the Confirmation Of Payee (COP) finds a match or not. You can ignore if there isn't a match. There will be a few warning messages, but you can click them all away.

It would be a great coincidence if an account number with just 2 digits difference existed within the same sort code, and an even greater coincidence if that account was held in the name of you and your husband. 

Unless your husband does indeed have and account with the other number, it is totally not true when the client says "nothing came up on his online banking to say it didn't match". Santander will, by default, carry out a COP check on payments to other Santander accounts.

Are you sure that both, the client and your husband are telling you the truth?

Hubby is telling the truth, I have heard the phone conversation on speaker. I'm surprised he hasn't thrown up tonight 🤦‍♀️
Client, I don't have a reason not to believe him 🤔 we have just bought his house, known his wife for a few years. The confirmation bit, maybe a fib but payment I don't doubt.
Hoping tomorrow he makes a call to the bank, we will make a call also to the bank. Let's hope after such a crap year we have some sort of luck in getting some, if not all back 🤞

Peter999_2

Hi,

Account numbers do follow an algorithm where if numbers could be mis-read they aren't valid.   For example, if my account number was 81238722 then the account number 81238122 would be invalid as you could possibly misread a 7 for a 1.

If you go to the following site - https://www.sortcodes.co.uk/ and put the sort code and account number of where the money has been sent it will tell you if it is a valid account or not.    If it is not valid the money should be returned to your client.

Hope this helps.

macman

Too late for you now, but both the Lloyds and Santander mobile banking apps have a function which generates the acc. no. and sort code for you. You can then copy it to the clipboard and text it, email it or whatever. Saves the chance of keying errors like this.