Sending bank payments, scope for error?

EarlofBarnet

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Can anyone help me with a bank payment query. If you send money to someone else's bank account using online banking, key details are bank account number and sort code. Is the surname also key?

Reason I ask is someone has paid some money in to my bank account and I don't know who they are. I'd have thought if they mistyped a bank acc number on the payment then it would bounce back as the surname wouldn't match the account details and the payment would sit in the banks suspense account. This payment is in my account so either the surname is irrelevant or someone has sent meant to send me money.

Been to the bank today and they've said they can't trace it. They've put it in my savings account while they investigate and see if the sender requests it back, and to pop back in to the branch in a month if its not been requested. I don't want the money and just want to send it back. Just a little confused as to how this happens :S
 
That is why there are so many 'ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS?' safeguards to online banking...

...if the anonymous individual who erroneously donated to your account is that dim then they deserve to lose out; if it bothers you give the money to charity when the grace period expires.

As to your OP query; the 'Name' is just a reference for your benefit so that you can quickly identify whose details you have stored in your account, the payment goes to the sort code/account number.
 
You hear stories like this regularly. Just don't spend it, they will take it back sooner or later. How much? 25 zillion from Zimbabwe?
 
Just a pain that its there. I'd rather the bank took it back and held it until the sender claimed it back.

Silly they don't have a third field check.
 
If the anonymous account holder does not contact their bank with the 'exact' details of who they erroneously paid asking for help to retrieve it the Bank has no way of identifying who to return it to...

...if the 'donor' miss-typed a digit without realising it they themselves haven't a clue where their money has gone so they have no-one to ask for it back.
 
Not that this is helpful, but reminds me of an episode of 'Frasier' where Frasier's Dad got twice as much as he requested from an ATM, it was something like $40, he spent so long trying to give it back to the bank and went through so many hoops, then the bank decided to compensate him for his troubles to the tune of $10,000 as they didn't want a law suit..... :D
 
That's it, the bank can't tell where it's came from, other than it was an online payment. Not to worry!

I like the Fraiser 'problem'. £1,000 would be gratefully accepted for my inconvenience. Haha.
 
Wasn't there a case, not long back, of some couple who weren't exactly high earning, yet were "saving" (well they thought they were) a not insignificant amount of money, per month, (£1000, IIRC) into what they assumed was their savings account - from what I remember, they didn't check up on this for quite some time, around 2 years, from memory.

In the meantime, they paid something like £25k into somebody else's account, think they'd made an unfortunate typo. The recipient apparently spent the money, and the bank(s) said they could not retrieve it.

Can't remember what the final outcome was, but at least until it hit the press, they'd got bubcas back.
 
Just asked my wife who works in a bank. It's their error and the bank has no way of getting it back. The only way it could be done is if the person asked you directly to send it.
 
I've read a few cases like this recently, and there was an article on the radio about it.

Regardless of the bank being able to trace it or not, as it was a transfer, there are no conditions attached to it and there is no way to get it back if a mistake was made.


Makes you think twice, doesn't it?
 
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