Transferred money to bank account that was overdrawn and sold to debt collection agency

hello19

Hi, as it says in the title, my brother accidentally sent £500 from his Lloyds account to my sister's Halifax account that was overdrawn and sold to a debt collection agency. Is there any way we can get this back? Were not sure if the Halifax account is closed, frozen or suspended. We are also not in contact with our sister. We know she no longer uses it as we receive letters from the debt collection. 
Thanks
 

sparelogin

No. It will be off-set against the debt. If there's any surplus, your sister can claim that.

hello19

sparelogin said:

No. It will be off-set against the debt. If there's any surplus, your sister can claim that.

Thanks for your response. The money belongs to someone else and if it was sent by mistake shouldn't they send it back and pursue the debtor who borrowed the debt in the first place? It's a huge chunk of money that was going towards rent and whilst they may not take that into consideration, surely keeping someone else's money is theft. 

eskbanker

hello19 said:

sparelogin said:

No. It will be off-set against the debt. If there's any surplus, your sister can claim that.

Thanks for your response. The money belongs to someone else and if it was sent by mistake shouldn't they send it back and pursue the debtor who borrowed the debt in the first place? It's a huge chunk of money that was going towards rent and whilst they may not take that into consideration, surely keeping someone else's money is theft. 

Once the money was sent it became your sister's, even though she effectively used it (inadvertently) to repay some debt - your brother could take action against her to recover the money but the bank and the debt collector have done nothing wrong here.

molerat

Yes, the sister should send it back - which is obviously going to be problematic.  I can't see this ending well and if it does it won't be in the immediate future !  How did he manage to send money to the wrong account - banks are making it difficult to send money even to the correct account these days. He needs to start with his bank but they have done nothing wrong, they did as asked and no doubt prompted several times to ensure they were sending the money where intended.

hello19

Thanks for your responses. We have raised the issue with Lloyds. They sounded quite positive in regards to getting the money back despite us telling them that the recipient's account is overdrawn. They also said if the account is closed it will bounce back if not, we completed a form to help us get it back. 
I'll come back with a response. 

Eco_Miser

molerat said:

Yes, the sister should send it back - which is obviously going to be problematic.  I can't see this ending well and if it does it won't be in the immediate future !  How did he manage to send money to the wrong account - banks are making it difficult to send money even to the correct account these days. He needs to start with his bank but they have done nothing wrong, they did as asked and no doubt prompted several times to ensure they were sending the money where intended.

Actually, they seem to be making it easier:

Click on 'Pay somebody'.

Click on an existing payee.

Enter the amount.

Click 'submit'.

Read the details, click 'confirm', and it's gone. Just the one chance to back out, and just your own vigilance to make sure you clicked on the right existing payee.

Yes, he should have been more careful, but there are not multiple prompts to make sure it's going to the right place.

maxximus75

If the account has been sold to a debt collection agency, then it should mean the account has been fully closed and thus, the money should bounce back after some days.

born_again

maxximus75 said:

If the account has been sold to a debt collection agency, then it should mean the account has been fully closed and thus, the money should bounce back after some days.

No it will go to a internal account where the bank will say "Thank you" for making a payment to your debt

hello19

born_again said:

maxximus75 said:

If the account has been sold to a debt collection agency, then it should mean the account has been fully closed and thus, the money should bounce back after some days.

No it will go to a internal account where the bank will say "Thank you" for making a payment to your debt

Let's hope it doesn't. No one should be responsible for other people's debt apart from who they lend it off. 

hello19

Just wanted to let you know that Lloyds successfully got my brothers money back from my sister's Halifax account that was overdrawn and had been passed onto the debt collection agency. He was deposited back the £500 into his account that he had transferred to her by mistake.