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Bank unable to trace recipient of a standing order

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Comments

  • Ergates said:

    I knew staff members of other banks as they knew me and often (pre mobiles or texts though!) and we would phone each other to check out suspicious transactions or people. I know in this day and age the bank would probably sack me for it but just say that you find the money was going to xyz bank - would you know anybody there that you could ask - pretty please is it possible to let me know who the account belongs to?

    If you don't know anybody perhaps walk in to a branch yourself with the death certificate -, will - if there is one and explain. You might get to see a sensible person - who knows.
    Not only would the bank immediately fire anyone caught doing that, but they would be liable for prosecution for deliberate GDPR breach.   You might as well ask someone working in a shop to steal from the till for you.

    "Hello friend.  I'm not sure who this SO is going to.   Would you break the law and violate the trust of your customers to help me out please?"  I can't imagine such a conversation ending well.
    Agreed and I said that but it does happen - not to be nosey but to actually catch scammers out.
    The one I remember most is a young girl coming in with a cheque for £8k said it was from her uncle - I smelt a rat immediately - she was so english and the cheque was made out in Welsh. Anyways off I go and phoned a mate - turns out his chequebook (amongst other things) had been stolen. I noticed this girl was looking nervously towards the door where 2 men were looking inwards. I went to CCTV put a DVD in (I'm that old lol) and recorded stills of them and their car parked outside. They got a custodial for that.
  • HobgoblinBT
    HobgoblinBT Posts: 270 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Posts
    OP.  I suggest that you get the sort code and account number and reference if quoted so that you can write to them.
    1. Find the bank address related to the sort code.
    2. Write letter to the standing order advising that you are the executor of your late father and then any questions you would like answering. Place in an unsealed envelope. Attach a stamp and enclose a self addressed envelope for your reply.
    3. Write a covering letter to the bank with the beneficiary sort code, requesting that the bank forward your letter to the beneficiary, ie their customer with sort code xxxxxx, account number xxxxxxxx
    4. Seal bank letter in an envelope together with the letter to the unknown beneficiary, SAE and post.
    5. Wait for reply, but don’t hold your breath as it may take some time.
  • Thank you all, the reference strangely states that it is an ISA in the name of my deceased mother! - I will see if I can get the s/c and a/c, then try tracking anything held in her name which the solicitor should reasonably be able to do to establish the value of her estate and whether an account she held was missed - it’s all a mystery!
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 45,426 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I wonder did your late father decide to use an inherited ISA allowance with the recipient provider and just leave the old reference to your late mother intact (either for convenience or sentimental reasons)?
  • Hoenir
    Hoenir Posts: 5,669 Forumite
    1,000 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 5 June 2024 pm30 9:19PM
    Thank you all, the reference strangely states that it is an ISA in the name of my deceased mother! - I will see if I can get the s/c and a/c, then try tracking anything held in her name which the solicitor should reasonably be able to do to establish the value of her estate and whether an account she held was missed - it’s all a mystery!
    Has the Estate already been wound up? Or is the solicitor still handling matters? 

    Hence my earlier comment about the Gazette. 
  • Zanderman
    Zanderman Posts: 4,812 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    The existence of a reference would have been useful to know at the start.  If it is to an ISA and payments were continuing then the money must, logically, still exist, and be recoverable. The question is just where.

    And whether as you suggest it was perhaps overlooked at probate for your mother.

    Though the fact that your father continued to pay into it suggests, as xylophone points out above, it was simply inherited by your father (i.e. it was covered at your mother's probate and was kept on by your father in his name but using the old reference.

    Its existence would be covered in the accounts of her estate, which should state the institution if done properly. 
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