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Accidentally sent money to the wrong account, what now?
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MrAmazing
Posts: 1 Newbie
Ahoy,
I owed a friend £160, so I dutifully noted down his NatWest account number and sort code into my spreadsheet I use for storing that kind of information. I logged on to my Nationwide internet banking account and made the FastPay/BACS transfer from my account to the account I copied and pasted from my spreadsheet.
He started to get concerned about 4 hours later when the money still hadn't showed up in his account. I shrugged it off, thinking the transfer went through the slower BACS rather than FastPay, but he asked me to double-check the transfer details. To my horror, it turns out that I copied and pasted the wrong account details from the spreadsheet, and that I had actually sent the money to my friends' cousin (who I've had earlier arrangements with).
Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem: I'd just give my friends' cousin a friendly phone call and request the money be sent back. Or if it was just an internal transfer within Nationwide or NatWest I'd simply ask them to undo it as it's under their jurisdiction.
Except this particular cousin left the country 2 years ago and left no contact information. He also has the habit of not responding to emails. And even if I could get through to him it's unlikely he'd actually be able to return it since making a transfer requires a card and card-reader, not something I imagine he took with him when he left the country (I'm told he fit everything into a single suitcase).
So the first thing I did was contact Nationwide straight away and explained the situation. The call centre rep wasn't overly helpful an said that as the transfer was by FastPay there wasn't anything Nationwide could do at all, and because I knew the guy I would havve to contact him to get it back. When I said that that would be impossible she could offer no advice and the conversation awkwardly ended.
My next step was to contact NatWest. The staff there were considerably more sympathetic and explained that because the money was from Nationwide, it is their responsibility to issue a "Caution" to NatWest to request the money be returned, and that's all that needs to be done; but besides that she couldn't help any more.
So I phoned back to Nationwide and explained the situation again, the guy answering the phone just said "uhh..." and disconnected me (real cool, Nationwide). I phoned again and got put through to someone slightly more helpful, but she said she had never heard of "caution" notes before and put me on hold to speak to a supervisor. She got back to me fairly quickly and said that such things simply don't exist, and simply suggested I contact the Payments department on Monday as they shut at 5pm (I was phoning around 7pm). The call centre staff member did point out that because their online banking system does make you double-check the destination account number that it is largely "my fault" and implied that it "serves me right" etc. (In reality the site doesn't make you double-check it, it just displays it for confirmation, there's no actual validation done).
I spoke to my friend and he said that he would have been a lot more forceful on the phone (I'm known to be on the timid side when dealing with companies) and wouldn't have hung-up until he spoke to someone 'at the top' to sort it out. But whatever.
What do the people of Money Saving Expert suggest?
I owed a friend £160, so I dutifully noted down his NatWest account number and sort code into my spreadsheet I use for storing that kind of information. I logged on to my Nationwide internet banking account and made the FastPay/BACS transfer from my account to the account I copied and pasted from my spreadsheet.
He started to get concerned about 4 hours later when the money still hadn't showed up in his account. I shrugged it off, thinking the transfer went through the slower BACS rather than FastPay, but he asked me to double-check the transfer details. To my horror, it turns out that I copied and pasted the wrong account details from the spreadsheet, and that I had actually sent the money to my friends' cousin (who I've had earlier arrangements with).
Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem: I'd just give my friends' cousin a friendly phone call and request the money be sent back. Or if it was just an internal transfer within Nationwide or NatWest I'd simply ask them to undo it as it's under their jurisdiction.
Except this particular cousin left the country 2 years ago and left no contact information. He also has the habit of not responding to emails. And even if I could get through to him it's unlikely he'd actually be able to return it since making a transfer requires a card and card-reader, not something I imagine he took with him when he left the country (I'm told he fit everything into a single suitcase).
So the first thing I did was contact Nationwide straight away and explained the situation. The call centre rep wasn't overly helpful an said that as the transfer was by FastPay there wasn't anything Nationwide could do at all, and because I knew the guy I would havve to contact him to get it back. When I said that that would be impossible she could offer no advice and the conversation awkwardly ended.
My next step was to contact NatWest. The staff there were considerably more sympathetic and explained that because the money was from Nationwide, it is their responsibility to issue a "Caution" to NatWest to request the money be returned, and that's all that needs to be done; but besides that she couldn't help any more.
So I phoned back to Nationwide and explained the situation again, the guy answering the phone just said "uhh..." and disconnected me (real cool, Nationwide). I phoned again and got put through to someone slightly more helpful, but she said she had never heard of "caution" notes before and put me on hold to speak to a supervisor. She got back to me fairly quickly and said that such things simply don't exist, and simply suggested I contact the Payments department on Monday as they shut at 5pm (I was phoning around 7pm). The call centre staff member did point out that because their online banking system does make you double-check the destination account number that it is largely "my fault" and implied that it "serves me right" etc. (In reality the site doesn't make you double-check it, it just displays it for confirmation, there's no actual validation done).
I spoke to my friend and he said that he would have been a lot more forceful on the phone (I'm known to be on the timid side when dealing with companies) and wouldn't have hung-up until he spoke to someone 'at the top' to sort it out. But whatever.
What do the people of Money Saving Expert suggest?
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Comments
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Bit of a difficult one this one I must admit.
The nature of faster payments is that they cannot be recalled once sent in the same way as BACs credits, on the basis that it is usually settled immediately.
Had the account number been incorrect and completely invalid, it would go into a Natwest suspense type of account. When this is reconciled (very regularly) the payment is repatriated.
The difficulty I mentioned above, is that you have made the payment to a valid account, a payee which was saved from a previous payment. Neither Nationwide or Natwest have any right to reverse the transaction without getting authorisation from the account holder.
Can you not get your friend to call his cousin to explain the error? The problem here is that Nationwide don't have to do anything here as they haven't made an error. If they had, they would have to refund you and get the funds back from the payee, but this is obviously not the case. That is the only genuine way I can imagine you getting the money back I'm afraid.Best Regards
zppp
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Do you know if your friends cousins account is still open?
If it is not then the bank might bounce the payment and return it to you. If it is still open I don't think there is a lot you can do.
Too late now, but when sending a payment to someone, you should always send a test payment of £1 first, to check and see that it arrives ok.
Also delete any payment mandates that you have set up to people that you are not intending to use again.
This may well turn out to be a costly lesson.0 -
Keeping your friends banking details on a spreadsheet on a computer connected to the internet probably isn't a good idea either.0
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Credit_Jake wrote: »Keeping your friends banking details on a spreadsheet on a computer connected to the internet probably isn't a good idea either.
doesn't matter a jot.0 -
The answer is quite simple here - either the cousin sends the money back or OP has lost it.
There is no bank error here - the OP made a mistake and it looks like costing him £160.0 -
Sorry to hear of the OP's predicament.
It would be nice for a definitive statement to be made by the banks about this situation.
I suspect of course that they won't be one - as if it became "normal" to get back incorrectly directed payments then there would be no incentive to get it right in the first place - and the banks would be deluged with requests for such 'errors' to be corrected.
Others have previously posted within these forums of strange payments being dumped into their account and subsequently removed. So, either the posters were lying or it is indeed possible for a payment once cleared through into a receiving account to be subsequently reversed without the account holders consent.
Trying to be helpful.....I recall there is something in the theft act if the receiver refuses to return the payment after they/their bank has been informed of the error....someone with a legal training please!0 -
I've heard of banks requesting for the payment back too, seems like nationwide just dont care =/0
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If you can't get in touch with the cousin, the bank will have to deal with the problem, just send a letter to your MP who will contact the Bank and they will sort it out. Banks hate MP's.....0
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If you can't get in touch with the cousin, the bank will have to deal with the problem, just send a letter to your MP who will contact the Bank and they will sort it out. Banks hate MP's.....
what a lot of rubbish, mps getting involved with someones banking error.
bottom line is the op made a mistake and the ONLY way you are going to get the money back is by either the account being closed and bouncing back to you or the 'friends cousin' returning it.
the MP has absolutely no authority in this whatsoever0 -
vintagegirl wrote: »what a lot of rubbish, mps getting involved with someones banking error.
bottom line is the op made a mistake and the ONLY way you are going to get the money back is by either the account being closed and bouncing back to you or the 'friends cousin' returning it.
the MP has absolutely no authority in this whatsoever
I,m sorry to break this to you, but i work with Banks, and if an MP gets involved, the Banks will sort it out quickly. So i think that you're the one talking rubbish.0
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