BACS - Bank Account Mistakes

In message , Jane Tweedynn writes

Generally, yes. It would be credited to the sort code & account number quoted.

Yes, it would be credited to the sort code & account number quoted. Whilst the receiving bank generally get a printout of the days BACS transactions which includes the receiving account name as entered by the remitter. Nobody checks this at the receiving bank end.

The bacs process checks the validity of the account number but it only asks the question 'is this account number a member of the set of all possible account numbers for the quoted sorting code?', not 'is this fred's account number?' 'or 'has this account number been allocated yet?'.

You claim the dosh back off whoever made the mistake, which is likely not to be the bank as most errors of this sort are made by the remitter, as it is they who prepare the data and send it to the bank to process. Somebody could have given the remitter the wrong details of course.

I don't think the account name forms part of the instruction, so yes.

So the remitter must ask for the money back from the remitter? Good one!

Tony

In message , Anthony R. Gold writes

From which angle are you looking at this? The remitter or the recipient?

Thanks.

So I have used another person/companies bank and sort code and paid the money to them incorrectly.

It is my mistake.

Does this mean then that I have lost this money (given that the account where the money went is valid and this person/company refuses to repay). Is the answer different whether the account name is correct?

Unless the recipient can defend their action by claiming that you really did own the money, then their refusal amounts to theft. If it is a small amount and the recipient is worthless, then give up. But if the amount is material and if recipient is substantial, then threaten to bring a claim in County Court and after a decent period (say three weeks) do it. And you can and should gross up the claim by the costs of brining the action.

Tony

From the angle of someone reading your posting. You said that the person who wanted the money BACK (so the remitter) should ask for the money back from the person who made the mistake, which was pretty clearly the poster and remitter, and as was subsequently confirmed in Jane's second post.

Tony

In message , Anthony R. Gold writes

Her post is not showing on my news yet, but I take your point. If the remitter has cocked up, then she should approach the beneficiary and ask for the dosh back. If the remitter doesnt know the address of the of the beneficiary then as they will know the bank & branch of the incorrect account (from the sorting code) then they should write to the beneficiary 'c/o' the bank to whom the dosh was sent and ask them to forward the correspondence.

If the beneficiary wont play ball, then legal action would be required.

In message , Jane Tweedynn writes

Your post arrived after I responded to ARG's.

I must admit that I initially assumed (incorrectly) you were the beneficiary (whose dosh had gone elsewhere) rather than the remitter.

If it is your c*ck up then the responsibility rests with you, but that doesnt mean you have no recourse.

You should approach the beneficiary and ask for the dosh back. If you dont know the address of the of the beneficiary then as you will know the bank & branch of the incorrect account (from the sorting code) then you should write to the beneficiary 'c/o' the bank branch to whom the dosh was sent and ask them to forward the correspondence to the account holder.

The recipient has no legal right to the dosh (assuming you didnt owe them some other dosh) but this is a civil matter, not a criminal one. If they wont pay up you would have to sue.

As an aside, the banks involved in the transaction have no responsibility if you used BACS (but see below)

Not if you used BACS, but if you used a hand written Bank Giro Credit then the situation could be different. (This is one reason why you dont see those bits of paper on bank counters so often these days)

Hope this helps, if not please ask more.

In message , Anthony R. Gold writes

(Missing posts now arrived!)

It may 'amount to theft' but it isnt 'theft'. It is a civil matter. Even so there are defences available based on the concept of 'having changed their position' and on 'the transaction not being out of the ordinary'; (my quote marks).

Wholeheartedly agree, except that i would go for judgement even if the recipient is less than substantial but more than worthless. (At least theyd get turned down for interest free credit on that new DVD player @ Comet)

Thanks to all.

Its not actually happened, we are putting in a system and I was unsure of the process if this happened.

I'd have thought that the banks would be able to reclaim the monies on our behalf if the account name did not match the bank acc and sort code whereas if we had just paid the wrong person/company then we would have to ask for the money back. I would use the analogy of a cheque sent to the wrong person (ie the name is in another person) and where we have sent a cheque to someone by mistake. In the first instance the cheque could not be cashed as the money has been sent to the wrong person, in the second if the payment has been cashed we would have to ask for payment returned. Seems account name means nothing to BACS.

I am so pleased to learn that and sincerely hope it never does happen.

It's actually fairly hard to mess up a BACS payment with a simple typo, as opposed to sending to the real account information of the wrong person by mixing them up, because a bank account number includes a check digit and so just changing or omitting a digit will result in an invalid number. Tony

In message , Jane Tweedynn writes

Thats right.