Freedon of information

[Bri w]

Please can someone tell me how far this extends when dealing with a private organisation.

I've hit a stonewall with a bank that owes me, I think, about £2k. They are saying the account is closed and are refusing to provide a statement of transactions for the last 2 years. I've been paying in approx £60/mth, from one bank into an account I hold at another. I have statements showing the money going out via DD but the bank its gone to are saying the bank closed the account in March 2009.

The email I received from the first bank says they can't tell me anything due to the Data Protection Act, and I should just cancel the DD.

Show me the money!

[maviczap]

Bri,
Don't know the answer to this. However if you DD was being paid to an account that had been closed, then the bank should hold it in a special holding account or its should have been bounced back to your account as a failed transaction, and again your bank might be holding it in a special holding account?

Banking Ombudsman might be a place to try

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

[MisterTommyH]

It's your bank account, and information stored about you. presumably on a computer? Would have thought that data protection would have covered it. You're entitled to see anything they hold on you (for a fee) if they refuse, report them to the information comissioner (sp).

[Ed]

FOI applies to public organisations only.

Data protection my ass... why can't they tell you about your own account? It's an excuse to do nothing from someone who understands even less.

Write to them and say that if they don't cough up your money within 7 days then you're reporting them to the banking ombudsman.

[fizzwheel]

I've heard data protection used as an excuse when people cant be bothered to do something in the past. IIRC if they are holding person information about you, then data protection act is designed to ensure the information that they hold is available to you for inspection at any time. Providing you can prove you are who you say you are.

Can you not go into the bank in question and talk to somebody rather than dealing with then via email...

[punyXpress]

Bri,
Don't know the answer to this. However if you DD was being paid to an account that had been closed, then the bank should hold it in a special holding account or its should have been bounced back to your account as a failed transaction, and again your bank might be holding it in a special holding account? *

Banking Ombudsman might be a place to try

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

* aka manager's slush fund / Xmas party fund ?

[Biker Biggles]

Are you sure its a direct debit and not a standing order?I thought a DD had to be actively called for by the recipient or nothing would be paid.If that is the case,you may be the victim of fraud with someone taking money from your account and diverting it to somewhere it should'nt be going.

[maviczap]

* aka manager's slush fund / Xmas party fund ?

No :p

I sent a large electronic bank transfer to pay off a loan, but when I phoned to check to see if it had cleared in the account I had sent it to.

But it hadn't so frantic phone calls to both my bank and the loan companies bank to see where my money had gone :confused:

Both banks have accounts where money that is misdirected sits safely until the correct account to deposit it is found.

If its bounced back to my bank, then my bank also has an account to catch a failed transaction.

My money had not gone into either of these types of accounts, but was found in yet another account, even though I had sent it to the correct account number & sort code specified on the letter from the loan bank :confused:

I was ****tin bricks I kid you not

But it was sorted in the end

[Bri w]

Are you sure its a direct debit and not a standing order?I thought a DD had to be actively called for by the recipient or nothing would be paid.If that is the case,you may be the victim of fraud with someone taking money from your account and diverting it to somewhere it should'nt be going.

Just finished getting all the paperwork together, inc 2.5 yrs of bank statements, prior to round 2 tomorrow and its definitely Direct Debits.

I've used the FSA before with great success. I'll try the nice way first then just give it to the FSA to sort out.

[The Idle Biker]

2.5 years into a closed account? My Mrs notices when a penny is out of place, within hours, I kid you not. Am sitting upstairs while she's going through some accounts downstairs now. Have just bought a pair of new bike trousers on ebay, without getting permission, I'm such a rebel. My last moment of bravado until tomorrow when she finds out and I cower like a lamb. Good luck by the way !

[Bri w]

2.5 years into a closed account? My Mrs notices when a penny is out of place, within hours, I kid you not. Am sitting upstairs while she's going through some accounts downstairs now. Have just bought a pair of new bike trousers on ebay, without getting permission, I'm such a rebel. My last moment of bravado until tomorrow when she finds out and I cower like a lamb. Good luck by the way !

Sounds like you're more in need of luck than me;)

[Ed]

2.5 years into a closed account? My Mrs notices when a penny is out of place, within hours, I kid you not. Am sitting upstairs while she's going through some accounts downstairs now. Have just bought a pair of new bike trousers on ebay, without getting permission, I'm such a rebel. My last moment of bravado until tomorrow when she finds out and I cower like a lamb. Good luck by the way !

You need permission to buy some bike trousers? Did she ask your permission to buy shoes? Or make up? Or anything else that's just for her?

[The Idle Biker]

Well, I was exagerating a little, she is a bit sharp on the accounts front though. Heaven help a bank that gets the statement wrong. Maybe I should steer her to a career with the FSA, she's got more bottle than the regulators seem to have. Still I always get my pocket money on time so I can't complain.

[mattSV]

Bri

Is it definitely a Direct Debit, or could it be a Standing Order?

Direct Debits are CLAIMED by the company that receives the payment, therefore if the account at Bank 2 is closed, the funds must have been paid in to another account that the claiming company owns.

Standing Orders are payments that YOU have set up. If a standing order payment has left your account, and not been applied to the receiving account, Bank 1 (the sending bank) have to track it down it using a BACS trace. In my experience, one of the following outcomes will apply:-


Payment received by Bank 2, account open, funds correctly applied to account
Payment received by Bank 2, account closed, funds applied to wrong account at Bank 2
Payment received by Bank 2, account closed, funds returned to Bank 1 and repaid back to your account at Bank 1
Payment received by Bank 2, account closed, funds returned to Bank 1 and repaid back to the wrong account at Bank 1
Or it could be sat in a 'holding account' at either bank, as others have said - however, these accounts are supposed to be reconciled on a daily basis, therefore funds should not just sit on them!


Do you have bank statements for any other accounts at Bank 1 - might be worth checking them to see it the payment has been returned but credited to the wrong account.

[Bri w]

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=162745

The money has been going into someone eles's account since Dec 2008. Now the argument is, is it my fault for not checking the savings account? Or is it the bank's fault for putting it into someone else's account?

We await the next response.

[454697819]

Did you have the account details incorrect?

[Quedos]

is that the account that you requested it to go to. if not I would assumed it banks fault.
I would check out paper work that states the account you have to pay it into

[Bibio]

how can it go into someone else's account if the name and numbers dont match up?

[454697819]

how can it go into someone else's account if the name and numbers dont match up?

remember your referring to the same institutions that nearly bought the world to its financial knees...

[Bri w]

They are saying my account was closed in 2008, and all subsequent monies paid into a different account held under a different name.

They've had the correct paperwork, and managed it correctly from 1996 to 2008.

I'd hazard a guess that it went t!ts up when the bank was taken over in 2008.

[Dicky Ticker]

Bank error------ say that unless it is sorted in your favour you will report it to banking ombudsman
Just make sure you have all the account names,numbers and sort codes.

Banks seem to have a habit of closing accounts that have no or little use and the onus placed on the account holder to prove everything to get their money back

[maviczap]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ttDu_n8cYC4/SuPhQiAVuWI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/VXuwiilPGE0/s320/bank_error_in_your_favor.jpg

:D:p:D

[northwind]

Yup, DDs aren't sent, they're taken. Unfortunately this won't meet the criteria for a direct debit indemnity claim. It's not up to the paying bank (ie the bank that your payment went out of) to resolve, it's the receiving bank or the DD originator (which presumably is also the receiving bank?)

The DD system's a bit weird- even if an account's closed, if that originator collects a direct debit it'll still be posted to the closed account by BACS. The receiving bank then ends up with an unapplied credit and will either return it or stick it in a suspense account until something else happens. But that's rare with DDs for pretty obvious reasons, if a company calls a DD and doesn't receive the funds where they expect to, they tend to notice.

Oh. Is the "other bank" a building society or former BS? They often have special account rules which complicate matters, frinstance some have bucket accounts that all inbound funds go to and are then disbursed using the reference number rather than the account details.

I'd suggest you ask the paying bank to do you BACS traces for each of the DDs and then contact the receiving bank/originator with those. Unfortunately I can't access the DD systems any more or I could do some sniffing around for you.

[Ed]

There is no legal obligation on a customer to check bank statements.

Ker-chinnggggg:D

[Quedos]

I thought you couldn't close an account with the say so of the holder. (i vaguely think that they can if it not been used or something or am I talking carp again?)

[Bri w]

Sorted.

all monies now in my bank account. interest paid up, and a little extra coz i'm a lovely person and didn't rip 'em on the phone

Hugs and kisses all round

[davepreston]

sweet, mines a large brandy and coke

[Quedos]

nad sod the drink _ i'll take a HUGE hug!

glad its all sorted

[Ed]

I invoice on completion, bill's in the post:D

[johnnyrod]

how can it go into someone else's account if the name and numbers dont match up?

If the numbers match an account then they take no notice of the name, had that problem before where I made a mistake with an account number. They (Barclays) treat the name as a reference and nothing more. Idiots, it's not like they couldn't match a name or a least flag it up if it doesn't look right, but as 45etc. says they're not really very careful.

Glad you got it sorted Bri.

[G]

Are either of the banks Santander/Abbey/Alliance & Leicester... not so long ago they swapped everything over to new systems, lots of account number changes and sortcodes were included in this swap.
Possibly go down that route.