Unknown company debiting my current account by over £2,000

[pishkashante]

Hi, I’m going to call my bank first thing tomorrow but thought I’d ask MN too.

A company has been withdrawing between £70 - 300 from my account, about 8 times in the past 2 years. I’ve only noticed (I have ADHD and procrastinate over things like checking my account). They have taken over £2,000 out of my account.

I have racked my brains over what this could be for but the amounts are so random I know I haven’t made these transactions.

What’s more, the name of the company is my town and then City (e.g. Wandsworth City).

So I thought this might be council tax but that’s taken by (for example) London Borough of Wandsworth not Wandsworth City.

Anyone have any idea what this could be?

Amazed that the bank weren't more helpful!

I can identify with this.

Suspect that I'm ADHD/ASD
Couldn't face opening my bank statements for years, they all piled up. No online banking. Was selling bits and bobs clearing clutter so all right for day to day cash. Forced myself to sit down and open them one day (the longer you leave it the harder it seems) and thankfully I had far more than I thought I had, thanks to a couple of tax rebate type things credited by my employers. (I didn't like opening payslips either) I'd figured I wasn't getting the letters from the bank so therefore I wasn't overdrawn and there was enough in there.

It must be so easy being "normal"...

I wish I had enough money to not notice 16k being put in my bank account 🙄

I thought I might have ADHD but bloody hell if I lost that sort of money or even a fiver I wouldn’t have enough food for the month! It’s a level of avoidance only the comfortably off can afford!

So you've called your bank about potential fraudulent transactions going back years and they all but shrugged and said call us back if you figure it out?! Sureeee....

Banks should be able to tell you which company is taking money from your account.

I don't think that comes under any data protection laws.

It's your money. Your account.

My thoughts exactly. I've had a strange payment (didn't recognise the name) go out. My bank phoned one of their departments and told me it was for tickets. I now knew what that was for.

Even though it could be fraud?

Er, are banks always so nonchalant about potential fraud?

Which bank is it OP?

I don’t like checking my bank (have good savings etc!) but it’s not ADHD I just don’t like checking accounts.

and have been a bit ostrich like in the art when I did have loans! Ended up getting loads of PPI claim refunds thanks to mumsnet!

Why would the council be giving you 16k?

Your bank seem very irresponsible in how they handled your call. One of their customers has had 2 large sums deposited and frequent debuts taken out of the account, and the customer cannot account for any of these transactions. At the very least I'd expect them to freeze all future payments to that account until further investigation.

And register as a vulnerable customer so they can make adjustments for your interactions.

I wasn’t like this but I did hate paperwork even though I filed it.

I always dreaded checking cashpoint balance even though from mid 20s I’ve had inheritances which mean I’ve not been poor at all!

at one point though I earned less than my friends and I did spend stupidly (Mid 20s clubbing spree for a few years!) and got credit cards and loans even though I didn’t really need them! Only got one credit card now, no loans bar mortgage and healthy savings etc.

Good luck getting hold of a real person to speak to at any bank these days !

2 years and now you flag it up ?

Something about this sounds odd. OP, if you really didn't notice these payments and are struggling that much with your ADHD, it sounds like you need some professional support dealing with day to day activities. I'm assuming you don't work if you can't cope to this extent.

tax credit?

council tax?

Really? You need to change your bank. What bank wouldn’t be able to give you details about the transactions? Bizarre.

I couldn’t even order a pizza a few months ago when I changed bank accounts as the bank didn’t recognise the merchant and flagged it as fraudulent and called me to ensure I knew what was going on. This story sounds absurd and the back even more so

@UserNameNameNameUser
@CrotchetyQuaver
@Whatisgoingonhere

You all get it. Thank you

When I explained to the bank about the incoming payments too, and the fact that I had also found that this company had taken £2k out of my mum’s account, they suggested I speak to the council.

I’m not a troll, I have been on MN for a decade.

I’m going to call the council on Monday. The money will go back.

This thread isn’t helping anyone anymore and my mental health is shot so I’ll leave it there now.

Thanks for all who understood and offered advice.

I’m another who completely gets it. Hope you get it sorted quickly!

Do you live in an ex Local Authority property where the Local Authority is the freeholder? If so these could be service charge/major works payments that you set up via a direct debit you forgot about. If your ADHD extends to not looking at post, you may have missed payment notices.

If that's not it, I'm wondering whether these payments are part of a payment plan to recoup the money paid to you in error several years ago, that you're not aware of because you didn't look at any notices that came through the post.

Either way you need to call the council and find out what's going on. You also need to get some systems in place to help you manage your finances better going forward. If you never check your account and don't check your post then you leave yourself very vulnerable to fraud, but also to fines if you don't pay bills on time. There are plenty of banking apps that can help you keep on top of things - if you find it too much of a challenge to set these things up, get a friend to help you. It'll make your life so much easier and also ensure you don't have to feel stressed or anxious about missing anything in future.