Monthly payment going to wrong account

[HTP99]

We have just found out that a regular payment to my mum from my wife's account of £136.00 has; for 5 months, been going to the wrong account.

It was originally going to the correct account, it was cancelled and then re-set up, however the last 2 digits of my mum's account is 00, the account were the money has been going to ends 10, all numbers up to that point are the same, as is the sort code.

My mum only noticed a few days ago that she wasn't receiving the money as it is a secondary account which she doesn't keep an eye on.

The wife spoke to her bank and they pretty much said, its your fault so your problem, nothing we can do.

Done a bit of digging and it appears that our bank has to look into it and make a request to the other bank for a return of the funds from the account holder of the wrong account, they can refuse but this is illegal and if this happens then other procedures will have to be implimented.

Has anyone here had a similar issue and what was the outcome?

[Nickyboy]

The bank can contact the recipient but they can't force them to return it, in order to actually get it back you have to take the recipient to court. But you need to get their contact information which the bank won't give you

[Countdown]

HTP99 said:

Done a bit of digging and it appears that our bank has to look into it and make a request to the other bank for a return of the funds from the account holder of the wrong account, they can refuse but this is illegal and if this happens then other procedures will have to be implimented.

Correct. You have to take legal action against the other account holder if they refuse to pay the money back. For all the bank knows, this could be legitimate money that your wife owes the other party. There is nothing to prove that your wife has been paying incorrectly.

HTP99 said:

Has anyone here had a similar issue and what was the outcome?

Hopefully the account number isn't a valid one and the money is sitting in a suspense account somewhere, either in the recipient bank, or it's bounced back to the sending bank. If it IS a valid account then your bank needs to speak to the recipient bank who need to speak to their customer. However you ARE reliant on that individual being an honest person and repaying the money.

[JulianPH]

Who cancelled it and set it up again with the wrong number? If it was your end then the comments above apply. If it was your banks end then it is a different matter.