Switched bank - refund made to debit card from closed account missing

l.c.elliott

I made a payment to a retailer in January 2020 for some flights and I decided in November 2020 to ask for a refund, they agreed to a partial refund. In October 2020 ne month earlier I had switched bank from Halifax to rbs through the switching scheme. They assured me that if I made payments from my old account or card and asked for a refund that they would be refunded to my new account automatically. However I found out the other day that its actually only payments that I made from my old bank account, not card, that get refunded automatically to my new account. The retailer says they have processed my refund and it has left their account. My old bank told me that my refund will be sitting waiting in the retailer's financial outbox or something to that description as the money has nowhere to go (debit card no longer exists) and that I need to tell the retailer to do a recall in error to get the money back to them and then they should send the payment again but to my old bank account details. Then my refund would be dent automatically to my new bank account. They refused to do this and said their policy was to refund the original card and that i should contact my old bank. But my old bank said I need to deal with it with the retailer! Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do? Who is responsible? Can I take this to the financial ombudsman?

Ed-1

l.c.elliott said:

I made a payment to a retailer in January 2020 for some flights and I decided in November 2020 to ask for a refund, they agreed to a partial refund. In October 2020 ne month earlier I had switched bank from Halifax to rbs through the switching scheme. They assured me that if I made payments from my old account or card and asked for a refund that they would be refunded to my new account automatically. However I found out the other day that its actually only payments that I made from my old bank account, not card, that get refunded automatically to my new account. The retailer says they have processed my refund and it has left their account. My old bank told me that my refund will be sitting waiting in the retailer's financial outbox or something to that description as the money has nowhere to go (debit card no longer exists) and that I need to tell the retailer to do a recall in error to get the money back to them and then they should send the payment again but to my old bank account details. Then my refund would be dent automatically to my new bank account. They refused to do this and said their policy was to refund the original card and that i should contact my old bank. But my old bank said I need to deal with it with the retailer! Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do? Who is responsible? Can I take this to the financial ombudsman?

Yes it has. You need to complain to Halifax with the debit card number the refund was sent to, the date the refund was processed, the amount and the retailer's name as it will be sitting in a Halifax suspense account.

l.c.elliott

Ed-1 said:

l.c.elliott said:

I made a payment to a retailer in January 2020 for some flights and I decided in November 2020 to ask for a refund, they agreed to a partial refund. In October 2020 ne month earlier I had switched bank from Halifax to rbs through the switching scheme. They assured me that if I made payments from my old account or card and asked for a refund that they would be refunded to my new account automatically. However I found out the other day that its actually only payments that I made from my old bank account, not card, that get refunded automatically to my new account. The retailer says they have processed my refund and it has left their account. My old bank told me that my refund will be sitting waiting in the retailer's financial outbox or something to that description as the money has nowhere to go (debit card no longer exists) and that I need to tell the retailer to do a recall in error to get the money back to them and then they should send the payment again but to my old bank account details. Then my refund would be dent automatically to my new bank account. They refused to do this and said their policy was to refund the original card and that i should contact my old bank. But my old bank said I need to deal with it with the retailer! Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do? Who is responsible? Can I take this to the financial ombudsman?

Yes it has. You need to complain to Halifax with the debit card number the refund was sent to, the date the refund was processed, the amount and the retailer's name as it will be sitting in a Halifax suspense account.

I complained to Halifax and they said they didn't have my money, that it would be sitting in the outbox for the retailer and that the retailer had to do a recall in error. Thats all they said!! So if halifax don't believe they have my money, where on earth could it be?

elsien

Formal complaint with all the information Ed-1 has suggested? 

chattyuk

This sounds a tad odd. I know for certain a few years ago getting a refund to my old card which made its way back to my new account after I used the switching scheme. Are you certain they’ve made the refund?

Ed-1

chattyuk said:

This sounds a tad odd. I know for certain a few years ago getting a refund to my old card which made its way back to my new account after I used the switching scheme. Are you certain they’ve made the refund?

Yes when I had this, it was forwarded on from a suspense account with the old bank but only after a few days.

l.c.elliott

Ed-1 said:

chattyuk said:

This sounds a tad odd. I know for certain a few years ago getting a refund to my old card which made its way back to my new account after I used the switching scheme. Are you certain they’ve made the refund?

Yes when I had this, it was forwarded on from a suspense account with the old bank but only after a few days.

By suspense account do you mean with your old bank? So I need to check if I have a suspense account with halifax and ask them to forward it on to my new account?
I am certain the retailer has made the refund, I have two emails from them stating that they have

Ed-1

l.c.elliott said:

Ed-1 said:

chattyuk said:

This sounds a tad odd. I know for certain a few years ago getting a refund to my old card which made its way back to my new account after I used the switching scheme. Are you certain they’ve made the refund?

Yes when I had this, it was forwarded on from a suspense account with the old bank but only after a few days.

By suspense account do you mean with your old bank? So I need to check if I have a suspense account with halifax and ask them to forward it on to my new account?
I am certain the retailer has made the refund, I have two emails from them stating that they have

Banks have suspense accounts that any misdirected payments go into until they are reviewed and sent on to the right place (which may be back to the source account).

I've still got the email from the retailer who did my refund to a cancelled card:

l.c.elliott

Ed-1 said:

l.c.elliott said:

Ed-1 said:

chattyuk said:

This sounds a tad odd. I know for certain a few years ago getting a refund to my old card which made its way back to my new account after I used the switching scheme. Are you certain they’ve made the refund?

Yes when I had this, it was forwarded on from a suspense account with the old bank but only after a few days.

By suspense account do you mean with your old bank? So I need to check if I have a suspense account with halifax and ask them to forward it on to my new account?
I am certain the retailer has made the refund, I have two emails from them stating that they have

Banks have suspense accounts that any misdirected payments go into until they are reviewed and sent on to the right place (which may be back to the source account).

I've still got the email from the retailer who did my refund to a cancelled card:

Thanks, OK so I can ask the retailer for the ARN number, auth code and transaction ID? How did you then go about retrieving that from your old bank? I mentioned this to Halifax a few weeks ago over the phone and asked if they could check if my money was being 'held' somewhere; they said they couldn't check from their call centre because it was a closed account and id have to go to a Halifax branch to check. Did you have to do that? I dont really fancy having to do that given my nearest branch isn't just down the road and during a pandemic I dont want to be going out unless necessary. 

Ed-1

l.c.elliott said:

Ed-1 said:

l.c.elliott said:

Ed-1 said:

chattyuk said:

This sounds a tad odd. I know for certain a few years ago getting a refund to my old card which made its way back to my new account after I used the switching scheme. Are you certain they’ve made the refund?

Yes when I had this, it was forwarded on from a suspense account with the old bank but only after a few days.

By suspense account do you mean with your old bank? So I need to check if I have a suspense account with halifax and ask them to forward it on to my new account?
I am certain the retailer has made the refund, I have two emails from them stating that they have

Banks have suspense accounts that any misdirected payments go into until they are reviewed and sent on to the right place (which may be back to the source account).

I've still got the email from the retailer who did my refund to a cancelled card:

Thanks, OK so I can ask the retailer for the ARN number, auth code and transaction ID? How did you then go about retrieving that from your old bank? I mentioned this to Halifax a few weeks ago over the phone and asked if they could check if my money was being 'held' somewhere; they said they couldn't check from their call centre because it was a closed account and id have to go to a Halifax branch to check. Did you have to do that? I dont really fancy having to do that given my nearest branch isn't just down the road and during a pandemic I dont want to be going out unless necessary. 

https://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/how-to-complain/complain-online.html

Give them as much information as possible about the transaction (as stated in my first post) to help them locate the payment.

born_again

Halifax are a PIA with card payments to switched & closed accounts. They deny all knowledge of them & blame retailers. We have argued long and hard with them over this.
As it is known that the payments are sat in their internal suspense accounts. You just need to get through to the team dealing with them. Front line call center are useless.
Try asking for either fraud or disputes teams who should have access to internal accounts & actually know what you are talking about.
As well as raising a complaint.