AIBU to think they should just pay me the money and sort it out themselves!

[Narnia72]

Long and involved, but will try and summarise:

In July, someone sent me £600 that went to the wrong account (my fault). Santander (my bank), found and retrived the money straightaway. But they still have not managed to find a way to communicate with the other bank (NatWest) in such a way that involves the money being transferred, either to me or the originator.

It would be resolved (and I was told that it could be) in one 5 second transaction.

However, for some reason, Santander want to send a cheque to the generic NatWest clearing office. They've done this twice and the cheques haven't been paid in by NatWest. The second time they said they'd sent it registered post, but can't give me the registered post reference that would enable NatWest to track it.

It's now 3 months since the initial transaction. I've done the financial ombudsman route, done official complaints, they have 8 weeks in which to resolve so til the beginning of December.

BUT, It's one transaction. They know where the money is. They know where it needs to go. But between the 2 banks, somehow this can't be achieved. It's now been escalated to an internal department at Santander that I can't talk to.

I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK!

I do not understand why I didn't have it back months ago. Would I BU to chain myself to Santander's head office until they resolve it!!! It's taken months of lies, broken promises and misinformation, always with me chasing them. I genuinely don't know what else to do to resolve it.

And I now really need the money

YANBU

Banks are arseholes the world over.

Threaten to sue them and claim interest?

Natwest? AND santander?!?! Good luck with that.

Who actually have the money?

If it's your bank, they do not need to communicate with Natwest at all, they need to take it out of their own holding account (called IL's, impersonal ledgers, in my banking days)and just put it straight into your account.

If natwest have the money, are reluctant to hand it over, then they just need to give it back to the person who paid you for them to send it again.

YANBU, it really is a very very simple procedure!

If it's your bank, they do not need to communicate with Natwest at all, they need to take it out of their own holding account (called IL's, impersonal ledgers, in my banking days)and just put it straight into your account

But if the OP gave the wrong account number (assumption), and is saying "Oops, sorry, can you put it here instead", don't the bank have a duty to check the OP is genuine i.e. contact the payer to see where they intended to send the money, etc?

They have already removed the money from the account it went into, presumably at the request of the OP or the payer, as they have already tried to return it.
Therefore, they should have already done the checks that the op/payer are genuine people!

Is the money in someone else's account? Or in a holding account with Natwest?

Your bank need to send a SWIFT message to the other bank to say the money was deposited into x account in error and has been returned and is being held in the ledger. Please return to sender.

If they have the money somewhere no idea why it's being a problem!

My money is currently in a pensions account at Santander AFAIK. I thought it had been removed and put in a holding account, but it doesn't sound like it from my conversations today. I have a Santander bank account. I gave the wrong sort code by one digit. The sender has completed a form saying where it accidentally went and where it should go. At this stage I just want it to go back into one of our accounts. Apparently. according to Santander it's complicated by the fact that it went into a pension account, and that's why they have to issue a cheque. However, it doesn't explain why they can't send the cheque direct to the sender's branch or directly to their house, but have to send it to a massive clearing office, where it obviously has got lost twice.

It seems ridicuously simple. They've found the money. They should put it back into one of our accounts. Even the person at Santander was a bit embarassed at not being able to resolve it. It's just idiotic, and is causing me sleepless nights, because I had expected to have the money back by now and am working off my overdraft (which I will obviously claim all expenses associated with, I just hate being in the red).

The only person who has information about the second cheque they issued is on annual leave until Monday apparently. They promise to be in touch on Monday. I'm not holding my breath, I think it's yet another delaying tactic.
I don't understand why though!

1. Find money TICK
2. Return money ????

It's not rocket science, or even a particularly noteworthy sum of money to them. It's probably cost them more than £600 in manpower hours, and certainly has cost me...

God that sounds like a nightmare!

This is the sort of juicy issue I liked to get my teeth into when I worked in banking complaints. Not with either of those banks though I'm afraid otherwise I might have been able to call in a favour.