Recovering a payment to a closed account; nightmare

Tonto28

On the 16th December I sent a payment from my TSB account to my sons TSB "account" which I had already set up as a transfer a long time ago. However, unfortunately my son didnt tell me he'd actually closed that account and moved to another bank. Checked on my account to see the money had left my account then looked at the help section to see that I would be refunded "automatically". A couple of days go by and still no refund so I go onto Chat where the agent originally tells me that no money has left my account, When I protest he then admits that in fact it has. I'm then advised that the refund should take 48 hours (even though it's already been 2 days!) but "it could take 20 days and is not guaranteed"! I then phone CS so I can actually speak to someone. Again I'm told the usual time is 48 hours and the 20 day quote is only when the payment goes to another bank. I'm assured that as this isnt the case the refund should be made automatically within 48 hours of me registering my "claim". I wait 3 working days and still no refund so again I go on Chat and this time I'm astonished to be told that my "claim" has gone to credit recovery to contact the "beneficiary" bank (themselves!) and, if successful(!), I should get a refund on 19th January 2026!!! Again I ring CS and I'm told that, unfortunately, because a "claim" has been raised that the 20 day rule will apply! What a farce and a what a way to treat a customer of 20 years ( but not for much longer)! I've now raised a complaint but I wouldnt be surprised if that takes to the New Year to be dealt with. So frustrated.

eskbanker

How long ago did your son close the account, and did he use the current account switching service?

The 20 day process relates to recovering misdirected payments to wrong accounts but should only apply if there is actually an account that the money went into, and account numbers shouldn't be reused for a long time....

If the payment went into some internal suspense account then getting it back should be much quicker.

Tonto28

Its been closed for several months. The point is that the 2 agents I actually spoke to said the payment should " bounce back" automatically yet it hasn't and I was being given this farcical comment about having to contact themselves as the "beneficiary bank" to make a claim!  Stop press!! They've paid up!! Looks like my complaint has actually found someone with common sense.

eskbanker

Tonto28 said:

Its been closed for several months. The point is that the 2 agents I actually spoke to said the payment should " bounce back" automatically yet it hasn't and I was being given this farcical comment about having to contact themselves as the "beneficiary bank" to make a claim!  Stop press!! They've paid up!! Looks like my complaint has actually found someone with common sense.

As above, if the account has only recently been closed then it won't have been reallocated to anyone else, and so payments to it will be temporarily diverted into a holding account, from which it should be a straightforward process to recover it, rather than the more laborious process of seeking consent from a recipient, although it sounds like your multiple conversations with different people resulted in contradictory information. Anyway, glad it's now resolved....

born_again

So as above did he use CASS to switch banks? If they did the money will be auto transferred to the new account.

eskbanker

born_again said:

So as above did he use CASS to switch banks? If they did the money will be auto transferred to the new account.

I think we can assume that there wasn't a CASS switch, given that the money was returned to OP by TSB.

SiliconChip

eskbanker said:

born_again said:

So as above did he use CASS to switch banks? If they did the money will be auto transferred to the new account.

I think we can assume that there wasn't a CASS switch, given that the money was returned to OP by TSB.

Given that the OP says "I should get a refund on 19th January 2026" your assumptions appear to be incorrect, although I do think it's pretty likely that CASS wasn't used otherwise the OP's son would have had the payment by now.