Credit union paid to different account (not mine)

celticbhoyro

New Member
Messages
3
Hi,

I set up online banking with my local credit union in November. I gave them my banking details through my banking app.

I went to use it on Tuesday night and just to be safe I sent 1 euro.

It didn't appear in my bank account. So I logged onto the credit union app and was shocked to see that the payee details I had originally given, were different than mine.... What if I had transferred a bigger transaction.

Anyways I've rang the credit union and I'm getting nowhere as they don't want to believe that it's not my account, I have told them my account details and still getting nowhere..

What can I do about this?
 
ClubMan said:
What exactly does this mean?

Can't you use the CU app or desktop site to correct the registered external account details?
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I gave them my aib details for my payee details ( just in case I ever needed to transfer my money).

They told me to call in to correct details.

My query is about this other account and what do I do to get money back, or if I had sent more, why are the credit union refusing to listen to me when I think they have made the mistake.
 
Is the other account totally different bank/number/sort code etc or is there anything similar to your own account? Sometimes an error on sort code can find a valid account in a different bank.
 
The AIB account details you added did you manually enter the IBAN yourself via the app or did you provide them to the CU who entered them on your behalf?

Does the wrong account details match any of your AIB payees?
 
celticbhoyro said:
I gave them my aib details for my payee details ( just in case I ever needed to transfer my money).
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So you didn't provide your bank details through your online banking app but rather manually?
celticbhoyro said:
They told me to call in to correct details.
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Why can't you register these yourself using the CU online banking app/website? Doesn't it provide that option? Or can payees only be set up by calling the CU and doing this manually?
celticbhoyro said:
My query is about this other account and what do I do to get money back, or if I had sent more, why are the credit union refusing to listen to me when I think they have made the mistake.
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You may need to contact the receiving bank but is it worth it for €1?
 
Call into your credit union with all your paperwork, your ID, your CU details and your bank details. They should be able to rectify the error (maybe they were setting up two at the same time and got them mixed up, who knows.). Then ask the CU to refund you the €1 you are down.

If they refuse at the desk then ask for the manager, they should have the power to refund the €1.

You are right to bring this to the attention of the CU if the error occurred on their side as they will be able to investigate if this is a process they need more rigour around or if it is a sign of internal fraud. Or perhaps you entered all the account details yourself and got some digits mixed up? If this is happening to sufficient CU customers they might disable that feature in the app and require their members to do this in the office in future.
 
Hi, all

Thanks for responding, so I have gone into credit union and they are still insisting it must be me that made the mistake.

I know I didn't, so I'm now wondering who do I complain to, is there a regulator.
 
24601 said:
Tell us excactly what happened. It's not at all clear whether it was you, the credit union or someone else who set up the payee.
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Totally agree. That's why I asked about the process of setting up the payee account twice already... Other questions which might clarify matters have also been studiously ignored which doesn't help...
 
celticbhoyro said:
Hi, all

Thanks for responding, so I have gone into credit union and they are still insisting it must be me that made the mistake.

I know I didn't, so I'm now wondering who do I complain to, is there a regulator.
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Central Bank are the regulator for credit unions, but it would help if you described exactly what happened so people on here can offer you best advice.
 
Original poster still hasn't described clearly what happened so it's difficult to give useful feedback. Perhaps they've concluded that it's not worth the hassle over €1. That's probably what I would've done.
 
Is the credit union not required to authenticate the recipient bank account before allowing transfers? I recently set up a transfer facility between a financial institution and my bank account and had to provide a copy of my bank statement showing the BIC / IBAN before the transfer was set up.

Is the credit union not required to authenticate your identity under the anti-money laundering legislation before allowing such transfers?

As for original transaction it may or may not be you who made the original mistake, e.g. supplied an incorrect a/c no, or their system that allowed an incorrect a/c no to be recorded, but allowing anybody to just set up a financial transfer mechanism without authentication of a/c, id, etc. seems like poor practice if not non-compliance with AML legislation.
 
PMU said:
Is the credit union not required to authenticate your identity under the anti-money laundering legislation before allowing such transfers?
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I can set up external payees and make transfers on my PTSB banking without any checking by PTSB. Why would it be any different with the CU?
 
Possibly because they (the PTSB) are a more professional organisation and have a high concern for client security, etc.

The PTSB do check. They will respond with a verification code via an SMS message to your mobile no that they already have on file to authenticate your request before the payee is set up.

Also, if you initiate a non-standard transaction the PTSB will send you an SMS on the lines of ‘Please contact us on our 24hr number NNNNN select option 2 regarding recent activity on your account. Your account usage may be restricted at this time’

Or they did to me when I recently set up a new payee and made a payment on the same day.
 
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celticbhoyro said:
Anyways I've rang the credit union and I'm getting nowhere as they don't want to believe that it's not my account, I have told them my account details and still getting nowhere..
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Credit Unions are financial service providers for the purposes of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. If you believe a complaint is necessary you must first complain to the financial services provider concerned and then if required to the FSPO. The FSPO web site provides details on how to do this. https://fspo.ie/make-a-complaint/how-to-make-a-complaint-to-your-provider/
 
In the past if there was an error in the IBAN the bank would reject it, or if there was no account of that number, or the account had been closed, the transaction would have reversed.
 
PMU said:
Is the credit union not required to authenticate the recipient bank account before allowing transfers?
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Verification of Payee is coming in October, as part of the SEPA changes. This will require the Banks to take the payee details you enter (including payee name) and send them to the destination bank for verification. The destination bank will send a response (e.g. match, no match, close match, check not possible). There is a 5 second window for this (end to end) so it should offer some comfort in realtime when setting up a payment transfer. When implemented it will reduce the risk of entering the details for the wrong destination account. While it will be one hurdle in the way for scammers (not an insurmountable one though), it will be a good safeguard against the payee paying the wrong person inadvertently (e.g. paying my sister instead of paying my brother by entering her IBAN.

Mistyping an IBAN and ending up with another valid IBAN is quite difficult. Single errors will always fail, two or more errors could possibly yield a valid result, but it is highly unlikely.

The OP most likely entered the wrong IBAN when setting up the payee in November. This could be a result of looking at the wrong source document or copying and pasting from the wrong source. This is actually quite easy to do, especially if you are in any way distracted. There is a slim possibility that PTSB changed the IBAN in error (e.g. changed it in error in response to a request from another customer, but it would require a series of errors/failures// omissions)

What is worth highlighting is that sending a trial trivial amount in advance of a larger transaction to validate the set-up worked very well in this case. I generally do this for any significant transfers, and also for any new personal accounts I set-up. If there is a third party involved, I get them to verify receipt (not verbally). I think it's a great idea and people should adopt it, especially with technical illiterati or people with poorly secured systems or both (such as solicitors). Well done to the Op for doing this - the outcome could have been a lot worse.
 
Freelance said:
The OP most likely entered the wrong IBAN when setting up the payee in November.
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A key problem here is that we still have no idea if the original poster set up the payee themselves or if they communicated the details to the CU for them to set it up and maybe there was some miscommunication or error at that end. We're still playing hide and seek with the facts here unfortunately...
 
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