Thieving Banks!

1882

My Mother paid off her mortgage last month but low and behold another payment was taken by the Woolwich/Barclays. She went to her bank (Lloyds TSB) who cancelled her direct debit and told her to contact Woolwich.

My advice to her was to ask the Lloyds TSB for a refund under the DD guarantee but being an OAP she didn't - would that be the best idea? Knowing banks bureaucracy it will take ages for the Woolwich to return her cash but from experience the refund of the DD should be almost instant.

Noz

Direct debit indemnity claim at the Lloyds TSB the simplest way

dunstonh

What you really mean is that your mother forgot to cancel the direct debit for her in the first place and that a request was already in the system that allowed one to go through. (d/d requests are often submitted 2-3 weeks in advance of debit date).

Nothing to do with thieving.

Woolwich will return it as soon as they realise they have it. Sometimes they need a prompt to speed it up but it could already be on its way back. I would suggest they are the first place of contact. Using the dd guarantee is a waste of resources and could well confuse your mother when she gets two credits to her account (one from Woolwich which is probably already on its way back and the DD guarantee from LTSB) and then LTSB take one back again about 10-14 days later.

1882

There should have been no payment being requested by Woolwich as the mortgage had been paid off at its scheduled completion date.

So organisations taking money they're not entitled to can't be classed as thieving?

KentishLady

Your mother needs to contact Woolwich/Barclays to make sure that the final payment made last month has been applied correctly to the mortgage account.

Reason being if it was applied correctly then the team who deal with maturing accounts would have cancelled the Direct Debit before this month's payment was collected.

Making the assumption that last months payment has not been applied as a final payment, then the account will not "realise" that the payment received in January should be returned to your Mother.

The sooner she contacts Woolwich/Barclays, the sooner the account will be closed and the money returned to her.