How to find where a payment has gone.

ajjars

Hi guys,
I hope you can help. My husband has a payment that has been taken out of his account by standing order every month since Feb 2010. That's 168 months. It is for £50 and is paid to Natwest, but we have no idea why. He has never had a Natwest bank account, Loan or credit card. 
He thinks it may be for an old debt, but as it is over 6 years - nothing shows up on his credit file. He never had a debt for £8400 though, so we are totally at a loss as to what it is. He did a chat on line with his bank, and all they could come up with was take your statements into Natwest and ask for a refund. 🤷‍♀️ Yeah! Like it's that simple. 
Does anyone know how he could find out where the money is going - into what or who's account? 
Maybe then we could fathom out what this payment is for.
He has cancelled the S/O now, to see if a letter comes through saying you've stopped paying - but we doubt this as he never had debts for that much, ever.
Any help would be appreciated. 
Thank you 😊 

Rich1976

If it’s a standing order, then these are set up by the account holder and not the recipient . So would suggest your husband has set it up but 2010 was 14 years ago and he has only just noticed it coming out?

On the standing order it should show the name of the account it was being paid to, not NatWest but the organisation or account holder the account belonged to?

as an extra thought, could it have been a savings account held with a building society for example. Most of these use one of the big banks and when paying money into a BS account, the bank details are a high street bank but the reference number allows the BS to allocate it to the correct savings account. Having said that your husband should have been receiving statements either online or by post.

Hoenir

ajjars said:

He did a chat on line with his bank, and all they could come up with was take your statements into Natwest and ask for a refund. 🤷‍♀️ Yeah! Like it's that simple. 

The bank will be able to determine who the recipient is. 

Why's it only just come to light after 14 years.  Does your husband know more than he's letting on. 

km1500

do you know the sort code and account number it was being sent to ?

Mark_d

Your husband might have made the payments to cover something like a mortgage - these are usually done by standing order.  But given the amount being exactly £50 perhaps the money was going to a family member to support them, maybe it was a payment to a charity organisation.

Was there any reference attached to the standing order payments?  Payments into a mortgage usually require the reference set to something specific.  Otherwise I usually set the reference to something that makes sense to me and to the recipient eg. "Spain 2025" "Child Maintenance"

Shakin_Steve

Mark_d said:

Your husband might have made the payments to cover something like a mortgage - these are usually done by standing order.  But given the amount being exactly £50 perhaps the money was going to a family member to support them, maybe it was a payment to a charity organisation.

Was there any reference attached to the standing order payments?  Payments into a mortgage usually require the reference set to something specific.  Otherwise I usually set the reference to something that makes sense to me and to the recipient eg. "Spain 2025" "Child Maintenance"

I beg to differ, mortgage payments are usually by direct debit. £50 seems pretty low to be a mortgage payment.

Rich1976

Shakin_Steve said:

Mark_d said:

Your husband might have made the payments to cover something like a mortgage - these are usually done by standing order.  But given the amount being exactly £50 perhaps the money was going to a family member to support them, maybe it was a payment to a charity organisation.

Was there any reference attached to the standing order payments?  Payments into a mortgage usually require the reference set to something specific.  Otherwise I usually set the reference to something that makes sense to me and to the recipient eg. "Spain 2025" "Child Maintenance"

I beg to differ, mortgage payments are usually by direct debit. £50 seems pretty low to be a mortgage payment.

Not if it was an overpayment. You can set standing orders up for those in addition to the main monthly payment

PloughmansLunch

Could it be a £50 a month plan into a long-forgotten Natwest JISA or other investment product?

Largs

Sorry to be blunt, but if your partner does not know, strangers on the internet will not know either.  

BooJewels

A number of years ago, we had a life insurance policy with NatWest - it was associated with one of their products at the time - might have been a secured loan.  Or could it be an endowment policy as part of an older mortgage - my first mortgage was an endowment and that was paid separately from the mortgage payments.

Have you tried putting the bank details into one of the on line sort code checkers, they often return the actual branch the account is held at - might ring some bells.

TheBanker

Is there no payee name, does it just say Natwest? And as the previous poster asked, is there any kind of reference? 

Did it start in Feb 2010, or is that just the oldest record you can find? If it did start in Feb 2010, is there anything significant he can remember from around that time, e.g. buying a new car or starting a new job that might help to jog his memory? Can he remember if he used online banking in 2010? Although it's hard to believe now, the concept of mobile banking apps didn't exist in 2010.

I was going to suggest posting the sort code (but not the account number) that the money's going to. There might be some clues there. E.g. it might be a branch of Natwest that's local to where he lives or used to live. Some Natwest sort codes are central, used for certain types of savings account, or it might be nothing to do with Natwest! 

If all else fails, you could try writing to the bank that's receiving the money (it may not be Natwest, it may be an agency banking arrangement where another bank is using a sort-code sponsored by Natwest), quoting the account number and asking them to pass on a letter asking the account holder to contact you. They may or may not do this, but it's worth a try. 

It is possible, of course, that there has been some kind of error. The problem is that the bank probably won't have records of how this SO was set up, given it was 14 years ago. And even if there was an error, customers are expected to check their bank statements and report errors promptly (within 13 months to be precise).