Is the mortgage payments system flawed?

[blfamily]

I'm a bit puzzled here.

 

Following the Skip of mortgage back in December, my wife went into the local Barclays to paythe January mortgage (we had set up a STO) but needed to pay in cash as we have bought the payment date forward. The payment was made into the account details of the letter Barclays sent me; this is the STO details.

 

She did this towards the end of January. We thought nothing of it when we had a you are 2 months over due letter dated 7 February, I ignored it on the basis the week before we had made a payment and the day the letter was issued was the day the STO was due.

 

Until now that is..

 

A couple of weeks back we had a letter saying we were still 2 months in arrears, I wrote back and explained what had happened, the bank responded but said firstly that I was 1 month in arrears then in the body of the letter saying I am 2 months in arrears. So I wrote back to them querying this and the lost payment and all they did was say that I owe a month at the top of the letter and that I should contact the branch.

 

I would have thought the mortgage centre should do the chasing not me - we have a big problem here that they took 2 months to contactus about this supposide missing payment, we no longer have the paying in stub/receipt as the payment was cash we have no other proof and to add insult to injury the bank statement from our current bank was not received for p/e 14 Feb - so i am relying on my wifes honesty here.

 

Question is how can I prove this was paid, when -

I have no evidence the wife paid the money in; She is adament that she did pay the money in but has no recolection of when she paid the money in (What should I do if she has lied to me?). The mortgage is in my name.

 

Ho do I ask the bank

"My wife paid £nnn in in January, I don't know when but she used these details, can you check for any teller errors..."???????

[slick132]

Hi BLF,

 

Did your wife not get/keep the receipt when this was paid in.

 

Do you know the time and date they money was paid in.

 

Would your wife recognise the teller that d/w the pay't.

[blfamily]

Answer 1 - Yes; but did not keep it

Answer 2 - She would have paid other money in at the same time, so we are looking at other deposits in January

Answer 3 - No idea,

 

Not looking good....

[slick132]

You need to work on item 2 then, then go back to the bank and ask them to check the items which were paid in at the time.

[tbern123]

If you are able to narrow the date to a specific date, you could ask to review the CCTV. Only problem is that I think some branches only have 31 tapes which they reuse each month.

 

I think the best thing to do is make a complaint, they will be able to review the branch entries and see if anything is a miss (if you can trust them, that is)

 

In relation to them taking two months to tell you, sadly Barclays have a strange policy of not telling a customer that they are in arrears until the arrears is in excess of one monthly payment. Which is just daft..

[blfamily]

Things are looking good (possibly) Barclays now say I owe 1 month iin the information panel on the letter, but then say i still owe 2mths. This is 3 weeks now and despite me asking simple questions, like the information panel at the top of the letter says one thing, they say different, who is right - I have had no response. They just suggest I contact my branch to dicuss the missing payment.

I have subsequently found a cash withdrawel slip for an amount near the mortgage payment at a time that coincides with when I thought it was paid. so i am hoping it is that!!

[blfamily]

Just had the final response from Barclays. And guess what.... yep they can't find it.

 

"I have exhausted every avenue of investigation, including a thorough search of the brances work, and havebeen unable to find any trace of your credit.No till errors were reported and as we don't have a receipt then they can't give us a refund."

 

I'm at a loss as what to do and how to do it now - do I offer to pay another £226 immediately or make an arrangement to pay the arrears off - if so for how long (we are already owing 1 month from December when Barclays screwed up). We are also on a debt managment plan which we have just altered as were paying the mortgage overdraft facility via that and not direct, so have had to make amendments to the arrangement.

 

What annoys me is, 3 days ago I received the letter stating it would be another month berfore I heard from them whilst they continue with their investigations yet they can "suddenly" get the answer.

 

How can someone in Leicester (well that is the address), do what he said he has done - investigate the suspended file, and all transactions at the branch to trace the credit. What has he actually done? Logged onto the suspended account had a look seen nothing, checked every single transaction for an account number similar to mine? Checked the CCTV?

 

Of course it is not going to show up!

 

Firstly I don't know what my wife paid in, whether it was £220,230,240 or 250, as I only have the withdrawl slip from the RBS for £250. Yes I also have to trust my wife that she did pay it in.

Next did he just look for my account number, or did he look for any combination of numbers?

Could it be possible the tellar added the deposit to the previous customers deposit?

Worse of all could the teller have given my wife the letter with the account details on it, kept the receipt, and cancelled the transaction?

Finally "who" left a message on our answer phone 2 weeks ago stating "Hello this is your bank, we have refunded the money to your account"

 

Any advise on what to do will be greatfully received and if anyone can pay the £452 I owe, I would be more than pleased.

[slick132]

Hi BLF,

What annoys me is, 3 days ago I received the letter stating it would be another month berfore I heard from them

This is a standard "holding" letter, simply generated because no final reply had been sent.

 

Otherwise, I'm at a loss as to your next move, if the £250 odd wasn't paid into another a/c or credited elsewhere. Without any receipt, I don't know what else to suggest. :o

[blfamily]

My options seem to be

a. Financial Ombudsman (incase they haven't been thorough in checking)

b. Get them to look again

c. Accept it has gone for ever

 

What ever looks like I'm out of pocket.

 

Curiously; I haven't had any communications from the mortgage collections people since I sent this enquiry in 6 weeks ago. Is that coincidental, or will I get a letter tomorrow from them? (ie they put it on hold whilst the investigation is completed).

[Bigmac versus]

This may not help you but I know someone else who was in a similar position and this is how their saga ended.

 

They are a retired couple and withdrew £50 from the teller inside the branch for their grandaughters birthday they then put this in an envolope and gave her it later that day.

 

Two weeks later their statement came in and to their horror it said withdrawal of £330. They contacted the bank immediately and demanded answers and were told it would take 10 days to investigate, after the bank investigated they replied by saying the banks balance on that day was correct and the account showed up as being a withdrawal of £330. This was not the case as they both knew and they then told the bank they were going to withdraw all their money from the accounts and swap banks.(they have a few quid) It was only at this stage the bank agreed to carry out a further investigation and they then discovered that the teller in question had been involved in two similar situations within the last year. The couple still bank with them and they said they have never seen that person back at work so guess they got the bullet. They got some compensation also for the trouble it caused.

 

Since then I have kept every transaction receipt from the banks as you just never know.

[blfamily]

This may not help you but I know someone else who was in a similar position and this is how their saga ended.

 

They are a retired couple and withdrew £50 from the teller inside the branch for their grandaughters birthday they then put this in an envolope and gave her it later that day.

 

Two weeks later their statement came in and to their horror it said withdrawal of £330. They contacted the bank immediately and demanded answers and were told it would take 10 days to investigate, after the bank investigated they replied by saying the banks balance on that day was correct and the account showed up as being a withdrawal of £330. This was not the case as they both knew and they then told the bank they were going to withdraw all their money from the accounts and swap banks.(they have a few quid) It was only at this stage the bank agreed to carry out a further investigation and they then discovered that the teller in question had been involved in two similar situations within the last year. The couple still bank with them and they said they have never seen that person back at work so guess they got the bullet. They got some compensation also for the trouble it caused.

 

Since then I have kept every transaction receipt from the banks as you just never know.

 

I do think the teller is at fault - it is only them that can make a mistake, whether a genuine error, or fraudulant activity. I know from someone who works at B&B, that a teller was stealing small amounts from accounts over a period of time - got caught and dismissed. So it does go on.

 

I for one have to beliive my wife did pay the money in and that we did not get a reciept because the transaction was not "normal" (the payment details were on a letter from the bank) so this was used and handed back, perhaps to make us think the letter had the receipt in it - ie we did not complete a paying in slip.

 

Of course the till will balance, even if it was fraud or some other mortgage account getting our payment.

 

If I was't on a DMP, or on a good mortgage I would have left Barclays/Woolwich for another bank. Truth is Barclays have been the sole cause of my debt and are the only bank still charging interest/fees on my overdraft, despite telling me 4 mths ago it will be referred to a DCA.

 

Unless anyone can advise anything further - I'm going to write back and ask whether the teller has had similar issues in the past or more recently; whether it is possible not to have been given a receipt as the details ere on the letter, to investigate all mortgage acoounts with numbers similar to mine to see if they have had a counter payment made in that period.

[blfamily]

Thanks for all you help. The bank have agreed my terms to repay the arrears over 2yrs so I am going to do that. But I will go to the Finacial Ombudsman Service; just to insure what the bank claim to have done what they claim.

 

Despite assurance from Team 5, I still have no evidence that the team member left Leicester and came to the local branch to physically check the tills. I also asked him whether any member of the branch had been caught stealing from customers - he said he was not in a position to discuss that. Does that mean someone was? or just no.

[slick132]

Hi BLF,

 

I'm glad to hear you've reached an agreement over this - but it was always going to be hard to prove your case without the receipt.

 

I'm not sure you can draw ANY conclusion from what the bank guy said.