Bank transfer goes missing

southseabubble

Recently I closed an online Post Office (Bank of Ireland) savings account. PO were to send the balance - a significant chunk of my life savings - to my 'nominated account' with Nationwide BS, the sort code and account number for which were provided when the savings account was set up. PO got a digit wrong on my NBS account number and after telling me the money will be located in 3-4 working days, when that period expired I was told it would take up to 20 days from them to trace the funds and there was no guarantee they would recover the money. For 'data protection reasons' NBS will not tell me if my money has gone into another customer's account and say if it has then it's up to PO to recover it from them as they will not intercede.

Has anyone had a similar experience and if so, is this type of delay, with the stress and serious finanacial inconvenience it is causing, usual? Are there any steps I can take now, other than lodging a complaint with PO which I have done, to seek recompense? Thank you in advance for any help offered.

colsten

If it is the fault of PO Savings, you will get all your money back.

As you have already registered a formal complaint, all you can do now is wait for the money to come back, and for PO Savings to respond in writing to your complaint. They have up to 8 weeks to do this. If they fail to respond within the 8 weeks, or if you are not satisfied with their response, you can escalate the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service

naedanger

southseabubble said:

Recently I closed an online Post Office (Bank of Ireland) savings account. PO were to send the balance - a significant chunk of my life savings - to my 'nominated account' with Nationwide BS, the sort code and account number for which were provided when the savings account was set up. PO got a digit wrong on my NBS account number and after telling me the money will be located in 3-4 working days, when that period expired I was told it would take up to 20 days from them to trace the funds and there was no guarantee they would recover the money. For 'data protection reasons' NBS will not tell me if my money has gone into another customer's account and say if it has then it's up to PO to recover it from them as they will not intercede.

Has anyone had a similar experience and if so, is this type of delay, with the stress and serious finanacial inconvenience it is causing, usual? Are there any steps I can take now, other than lodging a complaint with PO which I have done, to seek recompense? Thank you in advance for any help offered.

Have the PO admitted that it was them who got the digit wrong?

southseabubble

Yes, I spoke to a Customer Service manager last Thursday who said, “It’s our fault we sent the incorrect account number”.

Unfortunately as soon as you close a PO Savings account all you can see online is This Account Is Closed  - not even a link to get a tax certificate much less the original details which would have shown the nominated account as **** followed by the last four digits.  I do not believe I gave the wrong NBS account number when setting up the PO Savings, and in any event as you are required to transfer funds in from your linked account then PO would have had the correct details associated with that payment.

southseabubble

colsten said:

If it is the fault of PO Savings, you will get all your money back.

As you have already registered a formal complaint, all you can do now is wait for the money to come back, and for PO Savings to respond in writing to your complaint. They have up to 8 weeks to do this. If they fail to respond within the 8 weeks, or if you are not satisfied with their response, you can escalate the matter to the 

Thank you for this reassuring reply. In terms of the complaint the PO Customer Services Manager that I spoke to last Thursday, when asked for a postal or email address that I could write to in order to complain, said he would register the complaint and that I would receive a letter. I asked for a Complaint reference number but he was unable to provide it and said it would be contained in the letter. It is now Tuesday, the post has arrived and no letter yet. In view of the failings by PO to date I will write to their Bristol address.

naedanger

southseabubble said:

Yes, I spoke to a Customer Service manager last Thursday who said, “It’s our fault we sent the incorrect account number”.

Unfortunately as soon as you close a PO Savings account all you can see online is This Account Is Closed  - not even a link to get a tax certificate much less the original details which would have shown the nominated account as **** followed by the last four digits.  I do not believe I gave the wrong NBS account number when setting up the PO Savings, and in any event as you are required to transfer funds in from your linked account then PO would have had the correct details associated with that payment.

Your last point on transferring money in from that nominated account was going to be my follow on question if you weren't sure.

In that case you have nothing to worry about. So ensure your complaint is logged, ask for when you will next hear anything, and then chase for a reply if you don't hear when promised. Explain in your complaint any financial loss or inconvenience that you are currently experiencing as a result of their error.

Armorica

PO are at fault. They will need to send you the money correctly. And they should have done so already.
You do not have to wait for them to recover the money from wherever they wrongly sent it - the two things aren't connected as it's their error.

colsten

southseabubble said:

colsten said:

If it is the fault of PO Savings, you will get all your money back.

As you have already registered a formal complaint, all you can do now is wait for the money to come back, and for PO Savings to respond in writing to your complaint. They have up to 8 weeks to do this. If they fail to respond within the 8 weeks, or if you are not satisfied with their response, you can escalate the matter to the 

Thank you for this reassuring reply. In terms of the complaint the PO Customer Services Manager that I spoke to last Thursday, when asked for a postal or email address that I could write to in order to complain, said he would register the complaint and that I would receive a letter. I asked for a Complaint reference number but he was unable to provide it and said it would be contained in the letter. It is now Tuesday, the post has arrived and no letter yet. In view of the failings by PO to date I will write to their Bristol address.

PO Savings seem to be ok unless something goes wrong. Unfortunately, going by the many reports on the MSE Forum, things do go wrong quite a lot, and having them resolved seems to be, more often than not, quite difficult. Not getting a complaints reference when you raise a complaint strikes me as yet another example of their less than competent CS. Their complaints procedure is almost non-existent on their website, and there is no obvious way to raise a complaint online. At least they have a Freepost address......

soulsaver

southseabubble said:

...and in any event as you are required to transfer funds in from your linked account then PO would have had the correct details associated with that payment.

Not true: You are not required to fund the PO ac from the linked account.
However, if you can find evidence of funds leaving the correct linked account by 'pull' (DD) to the PO account in question then that would support the argument you had keyed it to the PO ac correctly... 

eta by 'pull'..