A question sent to the Guardian money section asks how you can retrieve cash from an account that was sent in error. In the case, the recpient of the cash isn’t really playing ball, and is saying that the money has been spent and cannot be paid back.
In July I made an online internet payment of £1,795 from my Lloyds TSB current account to my Cahoot personal loan, to close the loan account… …the amount I paid went to the correct sort code, but the account number had the last two digits transposed.
It seems that there is little evidence to suggest that the error was made by the banks, which makes resolving the problem a little tricky. The Guardian suggests that the “victim” sends a letter to the recipient of the cash (via the bank, as I suspect they cannot give out the name and address of the recipient) ordering them to pay up or to expect legal action by prosecuting them for theft.
I’ve often wondered how easy it would be to make a mistake like this, and how one would go about retrieving the money. This case proves that it pays to be very careful when transferring money online or not, and although the error is likely to be rectified in the long run, there is likely to be a lot of hassle in retrieving the cash which awe all could do without.