Sent bank payment to a closed help to save account

savings37

I made a mistake and sent a sum of money to a closed Help to Save account from 5 years ago (I should have deleted the payee yes)

I've told my bank and they are going to recall the funds (can take up to 20 days)

Do you think help to save will return the funds when they see the reference number is to a closed account?

Hoenir

Will end up in a suspense account. These are cleared down in chronological order. Oldest first. There's no queue jumping. 

retiredbanker1

As above unless they have recycled the account number - if someone is dishonest in spending unexpected monies you might not get it back.

savings37

retiredbanker1 said:

As above unless they have recycled the account number - if someone is dishonest in spending unexpected monies you might not get it back.

😳 with it being a help to save account only £50 a month is allowed to be paid in per month. Hopefully this makes the payment stall.

I've paid £1500 across in error 🫣

retiredbanker1

savings37 said:

retiredbanker1 said:

As above unless they have recycled the account number - if someone is dishonest in spending unexpected monies you might not get it back.

😳 with it being a help to save account only £50 a month is allowed to be paid in per month. Hopefully this makes the payment stall.

I've paid £1500 across in error 🫣

To the bank it is just a number - by now it could be any kind of savings account. Hope you get your money back.

eskbanker

retiredbanker1 said:

savings37 said:

retiredbanker1 said:

As above unless they have recycled the account number - if someone is dishonest in spending unexpected monies you might not get it back.

😳 with it being a help to save account only £50 a month is allowed to be paid in per month. Hopefully this makes the payment stall.

I've paid £1500 across in error 🫣

To the bank it is just a number - by now it could be any kind of savings account. Hope you get your money back.

But Help to Save is a very specific government-run scheme rather than a standard bank current or savings account - it is operated by NS&I so it may be that they don't allocate normal individual sort codes and account numbers?

savings37

eskbanker said:

retiredbanker1 said:

savings37 said:

retiredbanker1 said:

As above unless they have recycled the account number - if someone is dishonest in spending unexpected monies you might not get it back.

😳 with it being a help to save account only £50 a month is allowed to be paid in per month. Hopefully this makes the payment stall.

I've paid £1500 across in error 🫣

To the bank it is just a number - by now it could be any kind of savings account. Hope you get your money back.

But Help to Save is a very specific government-run scheme rather than a standard bank current or savings account - it is operated by NS&I so it may be that they don't allocate normal individual sort codes and account numbers?

Bank sort code and number and then a reference number for the funds to be allocated to the correct help to save account.

I've checked the sort code and it is still listed as a holding account for help to save funds under NS&I

It's the reference number part which is closed from many years ago.

eskbanker

savings37 said:

eskbanker said:

retiredbanker1 said:

savings37 said:

retiredbanker1 said:

As above unless they have recycled the account number - if someone is dishonest in spending unexpected monies you might not get it back.

😳 with it being a help to save account only £50 a month is allowed to be paid in per month. Hopefully this makes the payment stall.

I've paid £1500 across in error 🫣

To the bank it is just a number - by now it could be any kind of savings account. Hope you get your money back.

But Help to Save is a very specific government-run scheme rather than a standard bank current or savings account - it is operated by NS&I so it may be that they don't allocate normal individual sort codes and account numbers?

Bank sort code and number and then a reference number for the funds to be allocated to the correct help to save account.

I've checked the sort code and it is still listed as a holding account for help to save funds under NS&I

It's the reference number part which is closed from many years ago.

That was my suspicion, that NS&I will route money through a centralised holding account rather than allocating individual (externally-facing) ones, so this will significantly reduce the chances that your money will be within someone else's control, and it should just be a case of getting NS&I to return it, although that shouldn't be underestimated, given their reputation for messing up the simplest of tasks, never mind the more complex ones!

savings37

🤞 for a good resolution

Stressful situation and lesson learnt to delete irrelevant payees, I actually delete any friends or family member payees when no longer needed for this reason (although that would be easy to recover)