Card fraud, please help

[ThreeBeanRap]

DH's current account card stopped working recently so he called to order a new one. He was told he would keep his usual PIN. The card didn't arrive. He went online to get a phone number to report this today, and when checking his account found that someone had transferred all the money from our joint savings account into his current account, and then withdrawn the lot including his current account overdraft. In total about £8000.

We have reported it to the bank and they have opened a fraud case but haven't given any indication as to whether we'll get the money back. I've had money missing before and it's been refunded straight away. What's happened is his card and the new PIN, which the bank did sent out, have both been intercepted and the fraudster has been able to access all our linked accounts on an in branch atm and take everything.

I'm newly pregnant and feel absolutely sick with worry that they won't refund because the card and correct PIN were used. Has anyone got any similar experience or any advice? Without this money we are truly absolutely screwed.

Thanks in advance.

Autumn do they have high street branches? I'd ideally like to go with one that has a branch in my town (Barclays or Nationwide are the 2 options other than our current one) for convenience, but could live without if the customer care at FD is really good.

No, they are internet and phone based only.

They are owned by HSBC so you can do some counter things there. The only time I seemed to go in branch was when I needed to pay in cheques, but I now post the very few I get.

You can use hsbc for paying in and you can also use the post office.
You have 24 hour telephone banking. They answer quickly and there are no menus. You speak to a person immediately. Also they will switch your account from your old bank in 7 days.
Ive banked with them for 20 years.

Well after swearing they would have a decision for us by Fri, DH spent an hour on hold to them and was told they'd all gone home. They absolutely promised we would have a resolution by then. It's now Tuesday and nothing. It's so infuriating!!!

Update! DH had a text from them this morning saying we'd be getting a full refund and it should be back in our account today.

Thanks for all the help and advice on this. Now for my complaint letter!

Been reading this thread with interest. Glad you have the money back OP.

Just as a point regarding your complaints letter -make sure you state what your time and inconvenience has cost. DH and I had a similar issue with a different high street bank and our business account, trying to get something resolved and it went on and on. Eventually I lost the plot and got the complaints team (who were helpful) to agree that my messing about on the phone to them when I could have been working/picking my nose/painting the wall/any other activity was quantifiable with regards to compensation.

They ended up giving us a good will payment of somewhere in the region of £180 which allowed for the amount of time I had been on the phone, my cost of phone calls to them and bank charges where they had been twats

It would be worth stating what "you want as an outcome" following this debacle in your complaints letter, be that an apology for stress or financial compensation.

I am so blooming relieved for you! It's awful that they didn't give the resolution when they said they would, it only casts doubt in your mind. Make sure DH doesn't delete that text.

Definitely check their complaints procedure and be clear in outlining the mistakes that they made, ie how they let it happen in the first place and why they were poor in resolving it. It agree that you should say what your desired outcome is. When I complain I usually ask for resolution in three areas 1) for them to clarify how they allowed the problem to happen in the first place, 2) clarification on what measures they have since put in places to make sure that it doesn't happen again and 3) I quantify my time spent on resolving it by charging the hourly rate I am paid at work x the number of hours spent dealing with the issue. I add up time spent on the phone and time spent writing letter of complaint. Generally you get some waffle in response to point 2, but I want people to take me seriously and if I can change things for the better then I have to at least try, even if I fail.

When I went through my credit card fraud (nationwide) I used a template from trading standards, you used to be able to get them from their website. Their advice was not to use emotion but to stick to the facts, ie times and dates, keep to the chain of events and say how you were not satisfied and what you are hoping for them to do to rectify matters. They also advised I issue a deadline for response in the letter and another deadline for resolution. This is going back probably about 7 years so you should check whether this advise has been updated.

In my case nationwide fraud team had phoned me to let me know there had been fraudulent transactions on my account. They then said they would resolve it and I thought they would just fix it. It turned out that I needed to complete paperwork which they had not told me about. I found out the next month when the charges were still on my bill. When I phoned them back they apologised and sent the paperwork but only including some of the fraudulent transactions on (having gone through them all in detail). I then had to wait another couple of weeks for the correct paperwork to arrive. Once I had returned the paperwork I was advised that they would open a new card and close the old one in order to avoid anymore transactions and they would move the legitimate ones over. What they actually did was copy all of the transactions over to the new card so that the next month I had two bills. So what should have been a credit card bill of £200 was two credit cards both with £1500 on! I had more apologies and then assurances that it had been fixed. The next month it was still the same. At first you are trusting and that's why you believe them...in the end it took about 9 months for it to be resolved. They ended up giving me some compensation and sending me flowers in the post (which I returned). Nothing could have compensated me for the stress they caused. No one seemed to know what they were doing and in my experience there is no good bank or bad bank - we all have own experiences. We just have to grit our teeth when it does go wrong! I hope your money is back ASAP and that you find a great new bank.

Thanks so much for the kind words and advice quiet and lizzy.

I have put together a complaint letter this morning outlining the situation, various conversations we had with them, lack of updates, them going over the timescale etc.

I have summarised my reasons for complaining in (several!!) bullet points at the end and have done as you suggest and asked: how was this allowed to happen? what have they done to ensure it won't happen again? and what financial compensation will they be offering to cover our time, solicitor's time, phone charges, bank charges (they charged my DH for going overdrawn when a direct debit went out!) and the emotional stress we have been under.

I'll add in a timescale for resolution. I'm hoping for a significant amount of money from them to cover it all.

Late to the thread, but I just wanted to add something. I had a long drawn-out complaint with Halifax, who kept trying to deflect me, then suddenly the letters were coming from the "Escalated Complaints Department" and the matter was resolved, with a considerable amount of compensation, very quickly. So the message is - don't give up!