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?

Me too! Mine hasn’t been helped by a not totally honest financial advisor in my 20s who funnily enough no longer practices anymore!

I’ve got much better in handling money in recent years but for a few years was totally all over the place hence loans! Which I didn’t even really need!

This. Or of it can't be done online, ring and ask for a list of all direct debits and standing orders.

Am I misunderstanding or something? How can 16 THOUSAND POUNDS enter your account and you don’t realise?? Someone could put £16 in my account and I’d realise😂 that’s just crazy to me

You're 99% sure the council gave you 16 THOUSAND POUNDS which you didn't notice and don't know why? That seems unlikely at best....

I can completely understand this from someone with ADHD who has savings in more than one account and possibly moves things around from time to time but avoids checking things regularly. These savings are a lot to those who are really struggling, of course, but also it's very common to have built up ISAs and so on on relatively moderate salaries over a long period of time and not to have kept perfect tabs on them. But

as I am leaving my husband and I lose track of what is in what

this is absolutely the wrong time not to be keeping track of absolutely everything including both your own money and anything you can garner about his. So I would suggest that it would be money well spent for you to engage an accountant to help you get your financial ducks in a row and documented. No shame in it, I'm getting a small business accountant to help me with some (non-business, family) financial affairs because my time is better spent doing other things rather than keeping on top of bookkeeping that they are expert in and I am not even though 'technically' I could do it.

Going forward what might help is setting up an automated text message from the bank that will tell you the current balance of your account and the last few transactions. Mine arrives every Sunday and you can loosely see whether everything is as it should be.

A very good idea and ideal for someone with ADHD or other financial avoidance or just too busy to keep logging in to online banking all the time. I have these, I can set thresholds for texts about 'large' amounts going out or in, as well as entering my overdraft and nearing my overdraft limit. I have them set at £50 but you could have it set at £10 or £1000 or whatever you would find useful. You can set it differently for different accounts so for example if you want to set it higher than your largest direct debit or standing order or most of them so you aren't texted all the time, you can, but then you can set it lower or higher for savings accounts or secondary current accounts depending what the usual movements are in and out of those and what exactly you would like to monitor.

It's OK to not understand something but with that judgemental attitude you won't ever be in a position to learn. Being wired differently means that you don't use the same tools or methods to prioritise and you're not motivated by the same things or in the same way. No one is making any excuses here.

OP sorry if you already said and I missed it (fellow adhder here!) but are you absolutely certain you haven't ever claimed housing benefit even very short term? Or maybe tried to claim unsuccessfully? Have the payments going in been in lump sums or lots of smaller payments? And if smaller payments is there any type of pattern to the dates they've gone in? My first thought was that maybe there was an old claim that had continued and an overpayment being clawed back at the same time but it might be unlikely.

Otherwise, again this is with experience of adhd - have you previously gone full on hyperfocus on a genius business idea and applied for grants that you then forgot all about? If the judgemental neurotypicals could pipe down with any claims that this could never happen that'd be great

I'm really surprised by how many NT people are so lax about checking their finances.

I check all my accounts twice a day, morning and night.

@pishkashante I want to thank you for starting the thread. I feel like I have “found my people” with so many people who are describing behaviours which are things I do. I had never heard of avoidance to do with ADHD, or “hyper focus”.

Well, on the back of this thread alone, I have just checked all my bank accounts and overall finances.
Thanks.

Twice a day is excessive, I do mine once per month. What are you checking for??

When I used to get paper statements I could go years without opening them
now I check my online banking every 6-12 months unless there is a reason to check something
I do get a text message if I’m about to go overdrawn though and if I’ve not had one I know I’m doing ok
Im not sure why but dealing with my own money terrifies me
Also not knowing how much I’ve got actually makes me spend less

@carefulcalculator Presumably the same things that you are.

I receive and make payments almost every almost every day, and given the current state of the markets also check my investments once a day, so it's not excessive for me to keep on top of that, just good financial management.

Thus making any discrepancies or financial decisions easier and quicker to sort sooner rather than later.

I was very lax about checking my bank statement, anything could be going in and out and I'd have had no idea. I always intended to check when statements came but I never did, and then when I rang up to make a BACS transfer they asked me about signing up to online banking which I agreed. This then meant my statements were electronic - and guess what, never checked, and I had no idea what my log in details were so no way of doing so even if I wanted to.

I'm with Starling now. Every transaction, both debuts she credits, pop up as a notification, instantly. Sometimes the website I'm shopping takes a few seconds to load the confirmation page, but I know it's gone through as my Starling app has already sent a notification. This is a game changer, honestly, anyone else who's lax about checking should switch to a bank that offers this service - I'd know instantly if something was going out that shouldn't be and it's so easy to get in touch with the bank over the app to query it.

NT or ~NT I'm surprised how few people check their bank accounts at least once per month. Even if you're ~NT there are reminder apps and automated alerts that can be used as a reasonable adjustment (~NT won't be accepted as a defence for financial negligence).

@DogInATent I think you mean NT v ND and that ND would not be accepted as a defence.

Yup, the accepted opposite of ND slipped my mind. But NT are ~NT are accurate enough.

Would you like the ADHD as well 🙄

I don’t see how ADD has anything to do with this. I think this is just a case of notoriously clueless great financial privilege. It really does paint ADD in a bad light and sorely misrepresents the community.

I don’t see how ADD has anything to do with this.

Even why many posters have explained how it can affect them?

Also. It's ADHD as per the OP, you don't get to come along and change that.

ADHD isn’t a community and this doesn’t ‘misrepresent it’. 🙄 This is what ADHD is like for many women. As for ‘painting ADHD in a bad light’, that’s a really silly notion. What are we supposed to do, make up a load of nonsense about how empowering it is, how fun it can be, how special it is, it’s a super power and blah blah blah?? No. It’s actually really not nice to have and causes a lot of problems for a lot of people.

I have a lot less money than you but never ever keep more than needed in my current account for this exact reason. I transfer it all to my ISA and move it back as needed. You need to do this since you don't check your account.

I always wonder how much is robbed in this way, and people sometimes never notice!

Did you find out what it was OP?

Was the account ever in joint names?