Transfered all our money into wrong account

[swimmer55]

First time poster, just had a panicked call from my husband, he has transferred all of our savings in to a new account at a new bank (its been sitting in a current account for a couple of years gaining no interest so now interest rates are rising slightly we decided to transfer), by transposing 2 numbers it has gone to a strangers account, the bank are on it but have said it will take up to 24 days and there's a possibilitythey won't be able to return it, has this happened to anyone else and what was the outcome ? Its all of our savings so we are panicking!

How much we talking about here op?

But not all of them do and we have no idea where he was transferring it from or to.

Why do some people think they have a right to steal someone else’s hard earned money? I hope karma gets him.

Not all banks do. I recently moved a large amount of money taking advice from MSE about better interest rates. It wasn't one of the High St banks but has all the protections but they don't have the facility to to verify the account name and number.

There are many people who still fret about transferring large amount of money online to another account.

You can always go to the bank and for a small fee, they will do it themselves which takes the responsibility out of your hands.

When someone accidentally deposited £500 in to my account . The bank froze my account. I was panicking in case it was a scam . I would not let them move it until I received an official letter and I had followed it up myself with the bank . I don’t know how people who won’t pay it back can live with themselves .

I used to work in a bank. Transfers to a stranger's account is a nightmare and very much reliant on the stranger being honest and allowing it to be sent back to you.

However, if its going to a non-existant account they'll get it back to you. It'll just take a while as they work out which bank has it and where in the system it's got lost. It'll be sitting on one of their books unallocated and someone will probably need to find it and get it redirected to the right place.

Also, if it's a large amount and not sent via the faster payments system sometimes it's sent via older CHAPS/BACS systems where mistakes are easier to make, although I think that's increasingly rare.

People pearl clutching on here saying mistakes are virtually impossible to make are not being realistic. Mistakes do happen. Different banks operate different systems.

What a numpty.

Glad you’ll get it back.

Thank you, I have sometimes done that but my husband is disabled and we aren't always able to get out, particularly over the last 2 years, so I just try to be careful and cautious.

Something similar happened to me many, many years ago before online banking. I had then a passbook account, I went to the bank to withdraw some money and didn't check until I got home. I had thousands I had no idea where they came from.

Following day I went to the bank, I told them I had no idea where the money was from and the girl at the counter told me the money had been withdrawn by the bank the previous day. Someone had made a mistake and corrected it on the same day.

I dont know how this can even happen because for every bank transfer Ive ever made you get an alert from the bank saying "its a match" or "its not a match" for the account, sort code and account holder's name BEFORE you confirm it? did he not check it first?

Forgot to add- I have money in 4 different banks aswell as a business account in another and every single one has this process.

I’m getting a whiff here of something odd

either the entire thread but actually
more like the husband

Mistakes and negligent actions by banks do happen. I had money placed in my account once by mistake. I told the bank and they told me to keep it (small sum) until it was claimed. It was claimed, and they rang me for permission to retract it. A high street bank removed over £5k from my mother's account without her knowledge and consent. They claimed it was a dormant account (it was not, and she had added money in the year they closed it and phoned for interest statements). It took nearly two years of fighting the bank and then passing to the Ombudsman to get her money back. Errors do happen. Online banking checks the name of the intended recipient, as do over the counter transactions. I have recently moved money around between various accounts in my name and it is HARD, very HARD to get money moved without a little chat with the fraud team at the bank. I did a bank transfer this week over the counter of HSBC and they wanted all sorts of ID, and had me sign a document against the transfer. They even wanted me to volunteer a finger print for their system. If this is a legitimate error, you may struggle to get your money back but if it were me then I would go to the Financial Ombudsman stating the bank had a reasonable duty of care to spot an obvious error in record matching.

I would be a little cautious here, OP. Have you spoken to the bank yourself?

A family friend's DP supposedly did the same....... only he cleared the account and was long gone by the time she realised that it wasn't a banking error. He and his shiny new OW had a great life on her savings and she didn't get a penny back as the account was in both their names.

It wasnt the bank's mistake though- it was the husband transferring to the wrong account number which makes no sense because you get warnings first that the number doesnt match the account name. You also THEN get a message asking if you are sure it isnt a scam etc I agree with PP- there is something very fishy going on here....

Also, one thing that should make us all to breathe a bit easier is that banks these days take a minimum of 2-3 business days to clear transfers to another bank or new account. If we make a mistake and provided we realise we made the mistake in that time frame, it's easy for the bank to stop the transferring of the funds.

This seems pretty likely. Unless the bank is really crap there should be loads of warnings and safeguards to stop people making these kinds of mistakes now. It used to happen quite a lot but all the banks I know about have changed their procedures to make it much more difficult to make mistakes like this. On the other hand it makes a good story to tell for why thousands of pounds of savings aren't there.

Exactly- and the reason banks now put those checks and warnings in is because if YOU then still get scammed, legally they have done everything they possibly can and arent obliged to cover your mistake, its to cover their own backs.

Why do some people think they have a right to steal someone else’s hard earned money?

Who said anything about stealing ?

People pearl clutching on here saying mistakes are virtually impossible to make are not being realistic. Mistakes do happen

Daily, given my experiences. I'm quite surprised by the number of posters who think the UK banking sector is somehow free from error.

My normally careful DH transferred £500 in the same way, transposed the last two digits. This was in the days, relatively recently like last year, that matching by the bank wasn't happening. It wasn't an account but it still took three weeks for the money to be refunded.

There used to be a crime called 'taking pecuniary advantage' which covered this situation but I don't think it still exists and I'm not sure if there is a replacement.
I did something similar when I was cashing in about £10,000 on the phone, I mis-read a 3 for 8 or v.v.. I went down to the bank, Nationwide, and they looked into it, having calmed me down with a cup of coffee, luckily in my case it had gone into a dormant or non-existant account and they were able to recover it immediately but she did say that had it gone into someone's account it could have been very difficult to recover.
Good luck with it.

Fingers crossed this all works out. I recently got a chase bank account and it came up with a warning about it not being able to be verified on the first transfer. I am so paranoid I always do a £1 transfer the first time and then once it's gone through the details are saved on my main account.

if it were me then I would go to the Financial Ombudsman stating the bank had a reasonable duty of care to spot an obvious error in record matching.
The bank was not wrong here, people really do need to accept their own carelessness. The trite phrase 'duty of care' is trotted out so regularly to try and palm one's own responsibility to someone else.

I think you may find the bank is liable. They do checks these days to make sure the account number matches the name don't they? If this is the case the transaction should have failed. You may find the money is in a holding account. Fingers crossed you get it back.