NS&I gave my partner's money away...

NS&I gave my partner's money away...

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ManOpener

Original Poster:

12,467 posts

168 months

Friday 13th March 2015
quotequote all
...to a random bank account.

A little summary: my partner has a savings account set up in her name by her grandmother with NS&I. Over the last 26 years various family members have paid savings into it. At last check, the balance was about £3k.

She's been looking to consolidate all of her savings onto one account so sent a letter to NS&I asking them to close her account and pay her the balance by cheque.

Imagine our surprise to receive a letter from them saying they had transferred the entire balance of her account 'via BACS payment" to an unknown account. This worried us somewhat because my partner has never provided any bank account details to NS&I. On further investigation this isn't an account that belongs to her grandparents either- in fact the account details we have managed to obtain from them suggest the account it was paid into belong to a company called "Kingston and District Prov" (presumably an abbreviation of provident) which has absolutely nothing to do with her or her family.

Understandably she's absolutely livid about her money being sent to an account she has nothing to do with. I can only presume that either they copied the original account number down incorrectly 20something years ago, or they've recycled the original account number.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? We've got to the point where they've basically admitted they've messed up but keep passing us pillar to post- claiming in writing that it can all be sorted between them and NatWest (the holders of the account) and then telling them that we need to do all of the legwork negotiating between the two of them!

Any help in dealing with these incompetent muppets would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by ManOpener on Friday 13th March 22:02

98elise

26,366 posts

160 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
quotequote all
I would start to put pressure on them.

They have emptied they account, the reasons and resolutions etc are not your problem. Make that very clear to them.

PurpleMoonlight

22,362 posts

156 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
quotequote all
You have won most of the battle, they have admitted it's their error. Now you just want compensation. If you haven't already, put in formal written complaint.

If they fail to deal with it satisfactorily or quickly enough (or if the complaint already made has only got you this far), put a formal written complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

Claudia Skies

1,098 posts

115 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
quotequote all
PurpleMoonlight said:
they have admitted it's their error.
You're optimistic. I think NS&I are saying "we closed the account and sent the money out in accordance with instructions received at that time". The question becomes, who gave/signed those instructions? From the age of 26 mentioned and reference to a BACS payment I'm not clear exactly when the account was closed.

In the first post the OP says that various relations paid into the savings account. This makes me wonder whether the account might have been being operated by an adult on behalf of a child - a sort of Trust arrangement. That adult may have had full authority to withdraw the money from NS&I.

The procedure will depend on the particular type of account but, for example, here's what NS&I say about Children's Bonds,

"Until the child’s 16th birthday the parent or guardian nominated on the application looks after the Bond – regardless of who bought it.
We’ll send the investment record, statements and all correspondence to the nominated parent or guardian until the child is 16."

And for Premium Bonds they say,

"The parent or guardian nominated in the application to purchase will have responsibility for managing the Bonds while the child remains under 16 years of age.
"All communications relating to Bonds held by a child, including instructions to cash in Bonds, will be accepted from the nominated parent or guardian, unless there are exceptional circumstances causing us to doubt that the nominated parent or guardian is a fit person to manage the Bonds."





Edited by Claudia Skies on Saturday 14th March 10:37

Claudia Skies

1,098 posts

115 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
quotequote all
ManOpener said:
the account details we have managed to obtain from them suggest the account it was paid into belong to a company called "Kingston and District Prov" (presumably an abbreviation of provident) which has absolutely nothing to do with her or her family.
I take it you have been told the sort code, account number and beneficiary name on that account. If so, you can type the sort code into the second set of boxes on this link to identify a specific bank branch where further questions should be asked.

http://findsortcodes.co.uk/


ManOpener

Original Poster:

12,467 posts

168 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
quotequote all
Thanks all for your help so far. We are intending on submitting a formal complaint once we've managed to ascertain where and whom the money has been paid to and are in a position where the account balance is restored. We've currently only been dealing with the account staff, rather than customer services/complaints, but thankfully one of the few parts of NS&I which accepts communications that aren't sent by Pony Express is the complaints section. We were intending on copying the Financial Ombudsman in on any communications (we've got copies of the original letter sent, their reply where they clearly ignore the requests in that letter, our response which could basically be summed up as "what the fk have you done?" and their reply saying "err, sent your money somewhere but we don't really know to whom") should they not resolve it satisfactorily.



Claudia Skies said:
You're optimistic. I think NS&I are saying "we closed the account and sent the money out in accordance with instructions received at that time". The question becomes, who gave/signed those instructions? From the age of 26 mentioned and reference to a BACS payment I'm not clear exactly when the account was closed.
The account was closed on the 12 January, and the instructions were given by my partner in writing. They were fairly explicit regarding the method of payment (cheque) and where that payment was to go (our current address, not the historic one on file which is a "care of" address where her grandparents live). It appears that NS&I won't send out cheques (well, that's what the woman on the phone told her) but we had telephone contact details and our current address in the first letter so you'd think they'd have called us if she was asking them to do something they couldn't.

Claudia Skies said:
In the first post the OP says that various relations paid into the savings account. This makes me wonder whether the account might have been being operated by an adult on behalf of a child - a sort of Trust arrangement. That adult may have had full authority to withdraw the money from NS&I.
This is indeed how it was operated, but my partner turned 16 nearly 11 years ago now. She's had contact with NS&I regarding the account several times since that point, and they clearly had her signature on file as the account holder as they didn't need anyone to counter-sign the request to close the account and withdraw the money. Therefore I would hazard that the "instructions received" noted in both your comment above, and in the letter (in which, despite processing the payment, they clearly didn't follow the instructions as both the method of payment and who (and where) the payee was to be they got completely wrong) were those she supplied.

Claudia Skies said:
ManOpener said:
the account details we have managed to obtain from them suggest the account it was paid into belong to a company called "Kingston and District Prov" (presumably an abbreviation of provident) which has absolutely nothing to do with her or her family.
I take it you have been told the sort code, account number and beneficiary name on that account. If so, you can type the sort code into the second set of boxes on this link to identify a specific bank branch where further questions should be asked.

http://findsortcodes.co.uk/
It's in Esher- we'd already worked that one out. Which we thought a bit odd given that her grandparents have lived in Woodford Green for their whole lives and don't really have a reason to go to Surrey.

Edited by ManOpener on Saturday 14th March 11:35

Ari

19,328 posts

214 months

Sunday 15th March 2015
quotequote all
I'm not sure I'd concern yourself with where and when the money went, that's the banks problem.

Give them your account details and the balance and ask them to transfer it to you.

ManOpener

Original Poster:

12,467 posts

168 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
quotequote all
Little update:

Got back from Germany on Monday. Cheque for full balance of NS&I account was sitting on the doormat. No letter, nothing else accompanying it.
On Tuesday got a confirmation from NS&I that they've launched an investigation. Given this was supposed to be "within 5 working days", it's a bit tardy but hey, at least it's been actioned.

Thanks for all the help, will post the findings of that investigation whenever we receive it.