Money disappeared from bank account

JiggerandJolley

 My daughter had quite a large sum of money paid into her bank account (Monzo) last Friday. She saw appear in her account and texted me to let me know it had arrived (as some of it is for a re-payment to me).  When she looked on Saturday morning there was no sign of it and no record of it having been in her account.  She phoned the bank immediately and they said they had no record of any large sum of money going in to her account and that she had to get in touch with the sender.  Unfortunately, this is a government department and not open at the weekend so she called this morning and then had to email them to get the transaction number and hours later is still waiting despite from our point of view being urgent. 
 I know we will just have to wait but in the meantime has anyone ever been in this situation where money appears in a bank one minute and then just disappears with no transactions appearing to have taken place?
If anyone can throw any light on this problem it would be really helpful, thank you.

Desmond_Hume

100% sure you're looking in the correct account? 

I sold my car the other week. Saw the notification saying money was in. Went to move the money half an hour later. Gone. Money nowhere to be seen. After a few panicked minutes, I realised I'd sent the wrong details and was looking in the wrong account. 

Brie

It is possible that someone somehow at Monzo has suspected the money to have been paid fraudulently or in contravention of money laundering rules of some sort.  I also suspect that your average customer service person at Monzo mightn't have sight of a money being reversed out of her account.

Once she has the transaction number (which frankly may take a few days) Monzo should be able to track the payment which has either been returned to the sender or is in a suspense account awaiting investigation.  How long the investigation might take is a very elastic piece of string.  

It's unfortunate if daughter didn't take a screen shot of the money hitting her account (but why would she?) as that might be part of the basis for a complaint if she now finds herself financially disadvantaged.  

JiggerandJolley

Unfortunately, Desmond, this isn't the case in this instance, but thank you.  Your possible explanation, Brie, has re-assured us and is hopefully the answer so a massive thank you. We will just have to wait now and hope that the money turns up soon!

JadedAngel88

Brie said:

It's unfortunate if daughter didn't take a screen shot of the money hitting her account (but why would she?) as that might be part of the basis for a complaint if she now finds herself financially disadvantaged.  

Monzo don't allow screenshots. I think they did but stopped it.

Though you are correct, why would you screenshot a payment into your account, strange how it appeared then disappeared.

friolento

Unfortunately, the new APP scam rules now require that the sending and the receiving bank must share the compensation 50:50. Therefore we can now see incoming payments held for additional manual checks by fraud departments.

It doesn’t make much sense for payments from Govt departments to get checked but it’s probably fair to assume that there are teething troubles with the new rules.

It’s infuriating but all your daughter can do is what she’s already initiated, or just wait until Monzo release the money which no doubt sits in an incoming queue for the fraud department 

Shakin_Steve

JadedAngel88 said:

Brie said:

It's unfortunate if daughter didn't take a screen shot of the money hitting her account (but why would she?) as that might be part of the basis for a complaint if she now finds herself financially disadvantaged.  

Monzo don't allow screenshots. I think they did but stopped it.

Though you are correct, why would you screenshot a payment into your account, strange how it appeared then disappeared.

I can take screenshots of my Monzo account on iPhone, always have.

Rob5342

Shakin_Steve said:

JadedAngel88 said:

Brie said:

It's unfortunate if daughter didn't take a screen shot of the money hitting her account (but why would she?) as that might be part of the basis for a complaint if she now finds herself financially disadvantaged.  

Monzo don't allow screenshots. I think they did but stopped it.

Though you are correct, why would you screenshot a payment into your account, strange how it appeared then disappeared.

I can take screenshots of my Monzo account on iPhone, always have.

I've just just tried it on my S24 and works fine. 

Hoenir

There's no reason for funds from a UK Government Department to be withheld for a money laundering check. 

friolento

of course there is not. But if the fraud detection SW isn’t told that the source is a Govt department, it might just randomly pick the incoming payment for manual checking

boingy

Hoenir said:

There's no reason for funds from a UK Government Department to be withheld for a money laundering check. 

Sadly, I don't think their algorithms are that intelligent. They just seem to randomly block stuff.
I had a transfer of a tenner blocked that was going to an account in my name that had previously transferred £200 in the other direction. It's a weird scammer who would transfer money in both directions!