The bloke that sits next to me at work has not slept for several days now, at the weekend he paid £3000 in to a bank account to repay a friend.(yes this was in cash leaving him with a small piece of paper showing he paid the money in) Unfortunately he got the bank account number wrong by one digit….. now this was his error but he is having problems finding out how he can get his money back. The only think I can think or is to go to the Citizens advice. Any other ideas?
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paid £3000 in to the wrong bank account......
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Posted 2 years ago #
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Ask the bank?
Posted 2 years ago # -
He tried that, they won't tell him whos account it is due to the data protaction act.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Did the destination account holder name & number match up?
Ask the banks, as a first step.
What did they say?And put something in writing to the bank, now
Posted 2 years ago # -
If he got it wrong by 1 digit, the account will almost certainly not exist, as there is almost always a check digit included in account numbers. The receiving bank should have checked the account and told him there and then.
I think that it's illegal to hang on to money you know isn't yours that was accidently put in you account, so he should get it back eventually. If the bank is unresponsive threaten to make an official complaint.
Posted 2 years ago # -
get onto the bank asap. there is some law about monies credited in error and the recipient has to give it back...banks use it all the time when they make similar mistakes
the longer you leave it the harder that will be - he will have to hope the person who got it doesnt have internet banking!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I did something like this once, and the bank just put the money back in my account for me.
Think it may have been another of their accounts though.
One of my contractors gave me the wrong bank details and had a little more trouble getting his pay,, but he got there in the end.
Don;t know how useful that is, but perhaps it will clam your friend down a bit.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm fairly sure the bank will comply. The lucky account holder can be done for theft if they spend/dont give it back. But it takes time. I had 300 quid credited (by the bank not an individual) to me by accident once and attempted to keep it, in the blind belief that the banks error was my legal gain. There were some pretty heavy letters from the bank and a phone call from the local fraud team at the Police that gave me the impression that my liberty was under threat. I relented pronto..
Posted 2 years ago # -
If you know the account number it was paid into you could make a series of deposits in 1p and 2p amounts to send a message by morse code perhaps?
Posted 2 years ago # -
it'll be sitting in a suspense account somewhere, he just needs to raise a claim with the bank. Very unlikely it's gone into an individual's account, they set the numbers up so this sort of thing doesn't/can't happen...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Contact the bank and let them know about the mistake.
Posted 2 years ago # -
the bank has confirmed that the money has been credited to an account and that it is a business account but thats it. Now yes when the business comes to run the year end they should see that they have £3000 extra but that could take a while. (I asked him about the paying in slip and it was just the sort code and account number no name was filled out on the paying in slip....)
Posted 2 years ago # -
the account holder into which it has been paid will be deemed to hold it on a constructive trust now, due to the error. equitable title remains with the person making the error, so there is not a risk of it being lost forever even if spent already.
if he has no receipt/record of the credit - which is absolutely stupid, rankly - then he/a lawyer needs to write a letter to the bank outlining the position and informing them that he'll be charging them the lost interest on the £3k if they don't sort out where it went and get it back.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"this was in cash leaving him with a small piece of paper showing he paid the money in"
if he has a receipt and is sayign it was credited in error then he should just go and camp out in a branch until someone sorts it out.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Ask the bank to retrieve it.
He won't be able to get the details himself for sure but his bank will and wonder how much they will charge...
I think the person who got the money can keep it...woohoo!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I don't understand this. Anytime I've ever paid money into an account you need account number, sort code, name of bank and the name of the account holder you are paying the money into.
If you get the account number wrong by one digit then surely the name of the account holder would be different and therefor not match up to the details.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks for all your help, I will pass on your coments.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Someone paid money into my account (only a few hundred quid) by mistake. I got a letter from their bank asking if I could pay it back - however it was up to me. I paid it back immediately.
I guess you just need to hope!
Posted 2 years ago # -
The account name is not a required field (its as good idea for all the reasons above) but you only need a sort code and account number to deposit money
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yes, a bank will not credit money to an account if the name provided does not correspond to the account number.
I know this because somebody tried to pay a sum into my personal account instead of my business account, and the bank wouldn't let him.
Remind the bank of their obligations under the money laundering regulations.
Posted 2 years ago # -
You do NOT need a name on an account to pay money into it, only sort code and account number.
Posted 2 years ago # -
and if you pay cash into a well known high street building society using their 'counter' paying in slips, the reciept you get doesnt tell you which account it went to.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I managed to transfer money into the wrong building society a/c once online (Barclays) once but noticed straight away and contacted the bank who reversed the transaction immediately.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Contact bank immediately and explain the transfer was made in error. They should sort it out. I did the same thing with online banking once, contacted them straight away and they sorted it.
Why on earth the system doesn't have some error checking I don't know, it's very easy to transpose or mistype a digit, and there are simple ways to ensure that if you did this it wouldn't give a meaningful account number, but clearly the banks can't be bothered with making things safer.
Posted 2 years ago # -
It happened to me once, phonebanking person had done it wrong, took a few days to get it traced & recovered.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Oops that's gone a bit wrong...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Go to the Bank then Police
Posted 2 years ago # -
I think the error checking depends on the bank, as different systems will issue accounts in different ranges.
The error checking on an IBAN is very clever, I designed a validator for it a while back. Impossible to transpose digits or get any of them wrong.
Back to the OP, the bank can put in a claim to the recipient, but it's not immediate - the recipient needs to confirm the credit was in error - it'd be like you paying someone money then changing your mind and taking it back.
Posted 2 years ago # -
There was something on the local news like this a few months back, someone paid 5k to the wrong number online.
The bank wouldn't say who it went to and this woman obviously just hit a dead end. Must have contacted the press as a last resort but don't think she ever saw the cash again.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks everyone (tinribz I will probrbly not tell his that one as he is already very worried about it)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hw has now spoken to the company that has his money, and they are saying that they will only return £2500 of his £3000 as it was has fault!!!!
that can't be right can it?
thay have confirmed that they are not owed to the money but are saying that they have the right to keep some of it..... this does not sound right to me.
Posted 2 years ago # -
he needs to get some professional advice.
no, it doesn't sound right and there's probably a legal way of getting it all back but if he starts negotiating with this company he may end up prejudicing any actions he might subsdequently take. A solicitors letter to them would probably mean he gets the lot back and will cost him less than £500 and them a lot more to contest.
Posted 2 years ago # -
What a lovely company - charging £500 to be helpful. Surely the money isn't there's and they have to return it or they are breaking the law?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thats what I think Tiger-roach, I could see that they could argue that it would take them "a moment" to arrange the payment and that they may want to charge (Keep) £50 for their trouble but £500 is taking the Pi$$. In opinion anyway.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I would ring the police. It has to be theft surely?
Posted 2 years ago #
Topic Closed
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