Balance transfer misdirected to another account £4k - please help

sarahern

I have just tweeted them to ask! They just keep saying ‘we cannot assist whilst ombudsman investigates’ even though ive told them the ombudsman has no jurisdiction to claw the money back. It feels like every single organisation are unable to help. 

p3ncilsharpener

Thrugelmir said:

Ask Sainsburys/Barclaycaycard how you go about taking legal action to recover the funds. They have a duty to assist you. 

I don't believe they do.  They're not a law firm so they'd very quickly become unstuck if they tried to advise them.

The OP's claim is against whoever the money went to, not Sainsbury's or Barclaycard

sarahern

Well i have asked the question of them both. I am not hopeful. What upsets me most about this is i am able to advocate for myself. If this was someone particularly vulnerable then they would have absolutely no chance. How is it so easy to make a typo yet so difficult to investigate / seek assistance. I am so anxious and upset about the whole thing.

Thrugelmir

p3ncilsharpener said:

Thrugelmir said:

Ask Sainsburys/Barclaycaycard how you go about taking legal action to recover the funds. They have a duty to assist you. 

I don't believe they do.  They're not a law firm so they'd very quickly become unstuck if they tried to advise them.

The OP's claim is against whoever the money went to, not Sainsbury's or Barclaycard

I'm not suggesting that they provide actual legal advice. The county court claim however needs to be sent the receipient of the money. 

kaMelo

p3ncilsharpener said:

Thrugelmir said:

Ask Sainsburys/Barclaycaycard how you go about taking legal action to recover the funds. They have a duty to assist you. 

I don't believe they do.  They're not a law firm so they'd very quickly become unstuck if they tried to advise them.

The OP's claim is against whoever the money went to, not Sainsbury's or Barclaycard

Yes,  the OP's claim is against whoever the money was sent to, however under the misdirected payments code of practice a bank has a duty of care towards their customer.  In the first instance to try to recover the misdirected payment, if that is not possible for whatever reasons then they should give clear advice to their customer on their options to try to recover the money themselves.


OP, have you quoted the misdirected payments code of practice and the banks duty under that code to provide guidance on what you can do, rather than them just saying "not our problem" 

sarahern

No i havent specifically quoted the code. Ill look at that now. Not sure they will even correspond with me whilst ombudsman is investigating. But i will ask.

eskbanker

kaMelo said:

p3ncilsharpener said:

Thrugelmir said:

Ask Sainsburys/Barclaycaycard how you go about taking legal action to recover the funds. They have a duty to assist you. 

I don't believe they do.  They're not a law firm so they'd very quickly become unstuck if they tried to advise them.

The OP's claim is against whoever the money went to, not Sainsbury's or Barclaycard

Yes,  the OP's claim is against whoever the money was sent to, however under the misdirected payments code of practice a bank has a duty of care towards their customer.  In the first instance to try to recover the misdirected payment, if that is not possible for whatever reasons then they should give clear advice to their customer on their options to try to recover the money themselves.


OP, have you quoted the misdirected payments code of practice and the banks duty under that code to provide guidance on what you can do, rather than them just saying "not our problem" 

My understanding is that the misdirected payments process relates only to Faster Payments between current accounts (and others identified by sort code and account number), rather than balance transfer transactions between credit card providers, but happy to be corrected if there's something authoritative that contradicts that?

Edit: Sainsbury's Ts & Cs do state that balance transfers go via Faster Payments, potentially bringing them within scope of the misdirected payments process....

kaMelo

sarahern said:

No i havent specifically quoted the code. Ill look at that now. Not sure they will even correspond with me whilst ombudsman is investigating. But i will ask.

I don't want to get your hopes up as it will only be informative advice on the options available to you,  it will not be legal advice on those options or guidance through the process.

Considering the noise generated on "sophisticated" authorised push payment scams (which are actually anything but, instead relying on people's ignorance/apathy/stupidity in my opinion) and the need for customers to be protected from them I cannot believe a solution, short of a court order, still hasn't been found to make rectifying this kind of 'Fat Finger' scenario much easier.

Albeit for much less it's something I've done myself when purchasing tickets for the end of season ball at the rugby club a few years ago.  Whilst I was annoyed at losing the £50, I was absolutely gutted at missing the ball.

Sandtree

sarahern said:

I have just tweeted them to ask! They just keep saying ‘we cannot assist whilst ombudsman investigates’ even though ive told them the ombudsman has no jurisdiction to claw the money back. It feels like every single organisation are unable to help. 

The ombudsman cannot claw the money back however they can tell sainsbury's that they need to give you the same amount of money if they find any failings in their processes etc... FS is very nuanced and whilst to you if you get your £4k back from Sainsbury's, Barclay's or the recipient of the funds you don't care it is of material difference to them and they will be accurate in their descriptions. 

You will have the devils own job of getting the details of the owner of the account you accidently asked them to send the money to

sarahern

Do you think there is a chance if the ombudsman find there were failings on the part of the bank then one of the banks will be ordered to give me back the funds? Then the banks try clawing back themselves from the individual?