Lost Deposit Money, should a Bank have the records?

cepheus

I hope this is the appropriate forum to post this. My Mother who is in her 80s phoned me in a bit of a state today, this is the story as far as I understand it.

She had been asked to pay back an overpayment of her pension, and the pension service seems to have sent her some sort of a 'Giro' bill. (I haven't seen this since I live 250 miles away). She went down to the Halifax who keep all her accounts to try to pay this. However, the Halifax don't process this type of bill, so they advised her to pay it at the HSBC. She then walked down to the HSBC and payed this over the counter by cash. It was around £65 (she knows the exact amount).

The Pension service have since wrote back saying they haven't received the money, and the HSBC don't have any record either! However, my Mother insists she has payed it. Unfortunately she cannot find the receipt the HSBC should have given her, and is not sure they gave her one. She is certain the money was paid in, in fact one of the Halifax staff walked with her to the HSBC at the time since they just happened to be going in that direction and saw her walk in. They also know the time she she completed a transaction at the Halifax prior to walking to the HSBC, so the time of the HSBC transaction should be known reasonably accurately as well. My mother can remember the till placement and the approximate description of the person who took the money.

Has anyone any idea how I should take this forward? Would the HSBC keep a separate record, in which case what should the record say? what could have happened?

cepheus

I guess that the money is lost then, I will contact the bank to see if there us anything that can be done, but I suppose without a slip there is nothing she can do. Shame the Pension service could not just have docked the overpayment from her pension.

dunstonh

The cashier would stamp the top half of the bank giro credit tear off and give that back as proof of payment. The stamp showing date and cashier number allowing a trace to be done easily.

You know when you get bills through and you get the info on the top half and the bank giro credit at the bottom to tear off, its that top bit that gets stamped as proof of payment.

Would the HSBC keep a separate record, in which case what should the record say?

There is an audit kept but with potentially tens of thousands of transactions going through each day it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. If she had used a cheque it would have been easier.

natweststaffmember

Am not sure it would be a needle in a haystack if the account number and sort code to pay in was obtained from the Benefits agency. That with the date, amount should mean they should be able to trace it. Obviously I do not know HSBC systems as i work for NatWest but we would have been able to have done it that way.