Lloyds & my daughter's JISA money

la531983

cantbelieveit23 said:

This may be a very stupid question but.....how would a bank receiving the cheque know it was not authorised by the account holder??  I have received cheques in a foreign currency in the past and had no trouble converting them (at a cost), so something must have changed.

Probably because the OP went in and regailed the story in the opening post to them. Hence open another account, keep your gob shut, get it cashed.

Hoenir

customerdownunder said:

Hoenir said:

customerdownunder said:

My daughter was told to complete an account closure form and nominate a UK bank account to receive the funds.  She did as asked and nominated my NatWest account as she does not have access to a UK bank account.

Account would need to be in her name not yours. 

 Unfortunately the issues that have arisen are through your own making. Presumably you've informed Nat West of your non UK residency.

  My daughter has completed a Particular Power of Attorney for our UK family member to deal with this on her behalf and Lloyds still won’t discuss the account with them.

The account has been closed at your Daughter's request which is her right.  

customerdownunder

This bank does.Scroll down to the FAQ "How do I access the Foreign cheque currency services" question.

Open an account there (in the name the cheque is in, obviously) and get it dealt with.

Brilliant this is great information thank you.  I have not heard of this bank - we live regionally and would have to get on a plane to visit a branch but it does look like we can open an account online and deposit the cheque via a post office.  Bit disappointed that the staff at my ANZ branch didn’t know about this; they were flat out adamant that no where would accept it.

born_again

saajan_12 said:

customerdownunder said:

TadleyBaggie said:

How has it been stolen, if there is a valid cheque for the full amount?

The cheque isn’t valid - it was never authorised by the account holder and cannot be cashed.

Do you have any suggestions for a remedy?

If a customer is not responsive with one of the actually valid options for transfer, then a cheque is all they are left with. They don't need authorisation regarding what method to transfer the money, they were authorised to close the account and are transferring the money.

Remedies - open a UK bank account in her name, cash the cheque into that account OR request them to cancel the cheque and pay into that account. Then arrange a conversion to AUD and transfer separately. 

There is a big problem. Most banks will not open a account for anyone not living in the UK.
Some will not even open accounts for customers if they are out of the UK on holiday or such 🤷‍♀️

customerdownunder

MattMattMattUK said:

customerdownunder said:

I know the title sounds far fetched but this is true and I don’t know what to do.

I opened a JISA for my daughter in 2016.  At the time we lived in the UK.  We moved to Australia in 2020 and left the account dormant.  My daughter has turned 18.
She wrote to Lloyds asking to close the account and transfer the funds to her Australian bank account.  She never got a reply.
We were planning a family visit anyway and returned to the UK in May.  We visited in branch 3 times and they refused to transfer money overseas or provide cash.  My daughter was told to complete an account closure form and nominate a UK bank account to receive the funds.  She did as asked and nominated my NatWest account as she does not have access to a UK bank account.

We are now back in Australia.  Lloyds have closed the JISA but the funds never arrived.

My daughter has received a cheque in the post from Lloyds for the full amount.  She did not authorise this.  How can a bank perform a transaction the account holder didn’t ask for?  She cannot pay a £GBP cheque into an $ AUD account so this piece of paper is worthless.

Lloyds won’t talk to us.  They have no email address.  I tried phoning but they can’t trace the account as it’s closed.  I’ve written a complaint, no reply.  I’ve submitted 2 online complaints, no reply.  I’ve reported to the police and have a crime number but have heard no other response. I’ve tried submitted a complaint to the financial ombudsman online but I don’t know if they received it or not; I’ve had no reply.  I get stonewalled at every turn.  Our UK family has tried to help but Lloyds won’t talk to them either.

18 years of Christmas and birthday money plus us scrimping and saving to pay a little each month when we couldn’t afford it to give our daughter a £4k nest egg.  The whole lot has vanished.  Worse yet my other daughter is facing the same scenario in another 2 years.

If anyone reading this works for Lloyds please explain to me how this is even possible?

So instead of approaching this rationally you have decided to waste police time. They have not stolen anything, they have not done anything wrong regarding the rules or regulations. You can either keep screaming at clouds or do something effective. 

There will be a facility to pay a GBP cheque into a AUD account, although it will likely attract a fee and offer a sub-optimal exchange rate. Lloyds will not speak to your UK family as they have no legal right to be involved, the law means that they cannot be involved.

It has not vanished, you have a cheque that could be cashed, you need to work to solve that issue rather than trying to have a pointless argument with the bank or making false accusations of theft. 

I appreciate I only gave a summary version of our dealings with Lloyds but it’s a bit disappointing that you assume what I have stated is incorrect.  

As I’ve expanded on elsewhere we asked how to close this account and have only done exactly as Lloyds instructed.  The bank assured me that the money could and would be deposited into my NatWest account without any issues.  When it vanished from the Lloyds account and did not appear at NatWest I did act rationally and contacted Lloyds by phone.  I was told they did not know where the money was.  What would you do if £4000 went missing from your bank account without any explanation?  Reporting it as a crime was a completely reasonable thing to do under the circumstances.  

If you read the UK legislation which governs banking transactions you will see that the bank have acted wrongly.  There was no reason for them to deny my daughter a cash withdrawl for example.

My family do legally have the right to be involved.  My daughter appointed one of them as her Attorney.  I do understand the document which was signed and witnessed is not recognised as a full Power of Attorney under UK law but it is legally binding in Australia and it is sufficient evidence for a third party mandate which is all we actually need.
My bank here advised me that no bank would accept a foreign currency cheque.  Again - perhaps misguided - I rely on what I’m told by people who work in the banking system to be correct.  Luckily for me there are others here who have left some helpful comments for which I am grateful.

MattMattMattUK

customerdownunder said:

TadleyBaggie said:

How has it been stolen, if there is a valid cheque for the full amount?

The cheque isn’t valid - it was never authorised by the account holder

You seem to not understand what a valid cheque is.

customerdownunder said:
and cannot be cashed.

It can be cashed, just not in the way you want to cash it.

customerdownunder said:

Do you have any suggestions for a remedy?

Use one of the two Australian banks that have already been linked to in this thread as being able to accept foreign GBP cheques, or the others that will almost certainly be able to accept it. 

Kim_13

It would depend on when you wanted the cash for - notice is probably needed for anything over £500 and the money could easily have been stolen at worst and a headache to get back to Australia at best. Exchanging it in cash probably wouldn’t have been any cheaper than the eventual conversion fees. 

Always best to be forearmed with a copy of the T and Cs - an ISA is an Individual Savings Account so the clue was in the name as regards to whether paying it into an account in your name would be OK and the cashier shouldn’t have told you that it was. They wouldn’t be the first to provide the customer with an incorrect answer, especially when the issue is more complex than usual (of which your Australian bank are also guilty.) The terms had to be applied when they actually processed the closure, hence the cheque (but the call handler should have been able to tell you that a cheque had been issued.)