john banks

A savings account we've opened with the Alliance & Leicester is going to request funds from our current account tomorrow and Friday. Because of a mix up, the Friday payment is a duplicate and will send us not only overdrawn, but over out overdraft limit.

The A&L savings account tell us they can't cancel the duplicate payment. Our current account bank tell us they can't cancel any of the payments yet because there is nothing on their system to cancel. They tell us the second payment will be refused but that we'll be charged.

Each operator we speak to gives different advice, but apparently we can phone our bank tomorrow after the first payment is taken and reclaim it by Thursday so that the funds are back in the account again for it to be taken again on Friday. I'm told that two working days are required to cancel a payment, but if I phone in the morning then it will be less than two working days before the second payment is taken.

Any suggestions/insights?

brumdaisy

Yep, let it happen then claim the charges off the bank that created the mix up in the first place. A&L tend to be quite good at sorting out **** ups after the event, unfortunately they also excel at creating them in the first place.

If any subsequent payments are due from the overdrawn account you may want to remind the bank in question that legally they can not charge you more than £2.50 per item

mannyo

Whos mixup was it? if its the A&L then you should be able to claim the fees back from them because it was their error.

PeterUK300

iTrader: (1)

Get the overdraft increased until you have it sorted

Spoon

Can't see a problem here John. If it's not your mix-up then simply tell whoever made it to put it right.

Suresh

... and then close your account with A&L and move elsewhere. If they're this shockingly bad at the beginning, then why give them another chance to monkey you over?

john banks

I'd rather not have to have the hassle of reclaiming charges. The arrangement fee is 2% of any extra facility, and that will be rather more than the charges.

The A&L is the one at fault, or us depending on how you look at it. Most internet savings accounts show pending transactions until the amount transfers when it shows up on the main account display. With A&L we put through a transfer last Thursday and it immediately appeared in pending transactions. However, then it disappeared with no sign of it from the current account or in the savings account, SO WE DID IT AGAIN yesterday, and again today the pending transaction has disappeared. So we rung A&L and they are going to take both payments, one tomorrow and one on Friday. ICICI and Icesave allow you to follow the progress of the money movement, with A&L it disappears the following day without trace it seems until it suddenly gets debited from your current account 6 days later.

I think my only option is to try to get the money back tomorrow/Thu in time for it leaving again on Friday.

The problem with just dropping this account is finding enough accounts that pay 5.65-5.7% whilst not having too much more than the meagre compensation limits in each one. This is our house sale/purchase fund whilst we rent for a bit.

Suresh

P'raps call A&L and ask to speak to someone in authority i.e. their supervisor or a Manager, rather than just a regular operator. And then close your account

vindaloo

I've noticed something similar, but with Nationwide.
I don't see things pending or otherwise but my ISA payment hit the account, then disappeared, floating the account by another £2.5K.

Then today, it sank by £2.5K again as the payment was confirmed... Or something like that anyway.

J.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Speak to A&L, ask to speak to a manager. If they don't play ball, threaten to close the account at your earliest convenience, and make sure they foot the bill for their mix up.

Also, take the matter to the ombudsman, and tell them thats what you plan to do. Basically they are saying to you "that they plan to **** up, and you just have to deal with it". Simply not on.

john banks

It is further complicated because the A&L account is in my wife's name for tax reasons. She isn't quite so good at kicking *** as me and gets cross with me when I try to make her pin the *******s down I tend to push until I get a solution whereas she gets fobbed off too easily.

248SPG

When we take DD's from our customers I am 99% sure that if we take an incorrect amount of money that incurrs charges to the customer then we are responsible so they should have no problem in giving you the money back at all.

I can check our T&C's with the bank tomorrow but I have always given money + charges back when I have cocked things up

Also to add my Electricity supplier took an unauthorised DD from my personal account the other day. I called the bank and told them and they bounced it straight away and funds were back in my account that very same second.

SPG

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Sorry John.......I lost sympathy when in post 11 you mentioned that it was in your wife's name for tax / avoidance / evasion.

Shaun

a fellow NHS employee on a fixed salary with nowhere to hide (tax wise)

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

John,
Take the extended o'draft facility, then cancel it in writing once it has served its purpose within the 14 day cooling off period, they'll charge you up front for the facility then refund in full on cancellation, therefore no charge !

D

Nido

But the customer has (on-line I assume) requested the amount to be taken twice (technically), so it's not really the "fault" of the bank, they have not actually done anything incorrectly (apart from having a transaction pending process that doesn't actually show the transaction pending!).

john banks

The first payment has now shown up as a pending transaction on the current account. The bank say they can reclaim this by Thursday and let it be taken again on Friday. We'll see.

Shaun, we're doing nothing illegal, just don't want to pay 40% tax on all the savings and get a net return less than inflation as a result, since this is a part tax year since we sold our house we might just be OK this year, but will have to do something after April. After 20% we'll just get RPI on the money, if it was in a house the growth would of course be tax free. Long term it will either go back in a house or in assets that can be using up husband and wife CGT allowance rather than income tax.

john banks

Thanks Dunk, will look into this if the current plan doesn't work out. Thanks for the tips all.