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?

The only issue with it perhaps being the council is they can't just take random amounts out of your bank account willy nilly. I'd be straight back on to the bank and getting them to stop the payments going out of your bank account immediately, until you can sort out what's going on.

You don’t think it’s your husband doing something behind your back do you?

E.g he’s used your identity to claim something fraudulently, and now used it to set up a repayment plan?

What happened to the £10k, if you don’t know what’s going on with your bank account to the point of not knowing a random £10k appeared I think you need to get all your bank statements and comb through each transaction. Do you have a friend or family member to help?

This. Hang up the phone! Or close your account and move to another bank! What are you going to do if they want the 14k back?

pishkashante

Just to make sure but you are aware that any money that you have will be taken into account for financial settlement purposes when you divorce your DH?

With my bank account, I can look at the details of each individual direct debit, and that info includes the proper name of the payee, eg my council tax one says clearly as anything XXXX District Council. If you have similar, that might shed a little more light on things, OP.

Eight payments in 2 years sounds like something that's paid (or charged) quarterly. And the amounts vary quite a bit (£70-300). Given that the same organisation has made two large deposits, it almost sounds like they're recouping the money they paid in, albeit slowly.

I occasionally get clients who have had large "mystery" payments, because the DWP are still finding cases of people who have been underpaid ESA for years, but they clearly say "DWP" as the payee.

I'm quite unfeasibly intrigued by this, I hope that when you get to the bottom of it you let us know!

Also might flag to bank as potential money laundering.

Dying to know the outcome of this mystery!

I am shamefully lax at checking my current account. One day, having resolved to knuckle down and manage my finances better, I discovered that £30 had been debited from my account every month for six months to a payee I did not recognise. Googling revealed that it was a borough council 100 miles away, where I had never lived.

I phoned that council and, long story short, it turned out I was paying someone else's council tax!

The house owner had filled in a paper form for a direct debit, and when the account numbers were typed in by a council worker, they had transposed two numbers, and set it up to be debited from the wrong account -- mine!

If you have spoken to the bank, they are able to tell you exactly all the transactions details - credits, debits. There is no way they couldn’t give you this information!

@LakieLady I help my very elderly dad with his finances, and the DWP once refunded him £18k of underpaid pension all in one go! No explanatory letter or anything! I had to phone them to get the whole story, and then of course he had to pay tax on it which stressed him rather.

It really is worthwhile everyone to occasionally check your banking app/online banking to see what Direct Debits are set-up against your current accounts. Making note of which are active, which are inactive, and who they're all with. Last time I did this I found several inactive DDs from old inactive subscriptions which I cancelled.

It is OK @pattihews you have explained your ADHD means you do not check, I do understand that some people can have extreme avoidance and obviously you can not see something if you do not look.

Sorry I meant that for @pishkashante !

I hope it all works out OP and that you feel able to come back to the thread and tell us what happens. Im actually grateful for this thread because I thought there was something not right with me as I hate hate hate dealing with financial things, In my case I force myself to deal with them as I have to, but I have a real aversion to it. As an example, I know that I can reclaim money, maybe about £2000 on a certain thing, but for months I've been delaying filling out the necessary forms. I don't know why, I just hate it. Your post has given me some insight.

Off topic, but do be careful when you start divorce proceedings. A friend started exhibiting extreme avoidance behaviour in the middle of her divorce and stopped reading emails from her solicitors. It became a lengthy and expensive mess. In the end the solution was for her solicitors to copy me in as well. It has been bizarre, with me often having to read stuff, print it off, take it to her for her signature and then put it in the post. I have just been going with the flow, as both my friend, but more importantly her kids, need for it to be over. Your thread has usefully provided me with a possible explanation.

Just to say as a fellow adhd'er with extreme avoidance over any paperwork, I completely understand how you couldn't have a clue what is going on

Why would the council take £2000 out of your mum's account?

Has she not asked questions about where her money has gone?

@pishkashante have you got online banking, or an app on your phone for that bank?

Can you see the transactions on your statement or your online banking? It will have a couple of letters next to to it, such as DEB or DD. Can you see those?

And try to ignore the people casting judgement- you hadn't noticed something, you have now, you just need to figure out what it is

Who doesn’t notice 16k go into their account
it's a savings account, she has ADHD/avoidance issues. She doesn't check the statement frequently. I can easily see how that could happen.

Oh yes... there's a thing they call the ADHD tax. The cost of living with ADHD. I know it so well.

I get you OP, I have to really psyche myself up to logging on - I have no particular reason to want to avoid it. I always do avoid it though. Hope you get some answers.

She's got ADHD which comes with avoidance issues. I have ASD and also never check my bank account. I'll look when I get a bounced payment.

I get you and understand why you missed it. Don't worry it will all get sorted in the end. Call the council up in Monday and see what they say. It will be fine, don't worry.

It's no laughing matter!