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Bank transfer problem - missing money
moordown66
Posts: 539 Forum Member
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Don’t know if anyone can help me with this one. It’s driving me round the bend!
I won a bit of money at an online bookie and withdrew it. It never arrived at my bank account. The bank say it’s the bookies fault. The bookie says it’s the banks fault.
The bookie has provided me with an ARN number and confirmed it left ok and confirmed the details (correct) of where they sent it to.
The bank say they can’t trace ARN numbers and the bookie should reverse the payment. The bookie say they can’t because it’s already gone.
Somewhere out there is my money but neither the bank or the bookie seem able to help me find it and one or both parties would be far happier if I just went away and left it, it appears to me.
But I’m not going to. However, I haven’t got the faintest idea what to do next. Not a clue.
Has anyone ever been in this situation, and what did you do to get it resolved?
Thanks for reading
I won a bit of money at an online bookie and withdrew it. It never arrived at my bank account. The bank say it’s the bookies fault. The bookie says it’s the banks fault.
The bookie has provided me with an ARN number and confirmed it left ok and confirmed the details (correct) of where they sent it to.
The bank say they can’t trace ARN numbers and the bookie should reverse the payment. The bookie say they can’t because it’s already gone.
Somewhere out there is my money but neither the bank or the bookie seem able to help me find it and one or both parties would be far happier if I just went away and left it, it appears to me.
But I’m not going to. However, I haven’t got the faintest idea what to do next. Not a clue.
Has anyone ever been in this situation, and what did you do to get it resolved?
Thanks for reading
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Comments
What timescale are we talking about here?
I've been back to the bookie today and have requested their bankers details so we can establish what happened after it left.
Are there any ombudsmen I could get involved?
I can't see exactly how going to the small claims court would work. I'm guessing there are a number of systems in place to negate the necessity of that aren't there? Don't see what the police fraud department would be able to do with it either?
Their bank details might not be any help.
Earlier you mentioned the "ARN" number - this is the unique code generated for a credit or debit card transaction. You need their Merchant service provider details - which probably differs from their bank details.
That said , it is very straight forward for the bookie to put a trace on the payment to see where it went and they should get an answer in a few days.
Maybe give them to the end of the week before escalating it.
Transferring funds back to my debit card from the online account.
I've got an ARN and GuWID number but have no idea what that is!
As I understand it, the ARN is confirmation that the transaction was completed, so if this is the case, where could the money have gone? Could they have paid it into a wrong account? If they have, how can I prove that? They say they haven't and have quoted my correct details.
Are there any other places it could be held up/lost in?
As you say the details they quoted are correct I think you need to recheck the account the debit card relates to, to see if the money is there
(Also the details they quoted you were they computer generated or did the rewrite them for you - if the latter they may have misquoted)
Your debit card hasn't expired between debiting the money into your online bookie account and them trying to credit your card?
Bookies problem.
They admit that they owe you some money. You say you didn't receive it so unless their bank can verify with your bank that it was sent and received (which your bank would then confirm to you), they still owe it to you. They need to get their bank to trace it through the system.
If they won't play ball, you can sue (or small-claims-court) for it but my guess is that before that stage, there may be a betting industry complaints procedure you can follow so check that out first. Don't let them fob you off with meaningless (to you) ID numbers, that kind of technical stuff is for them and the banking system to sort out between themselves.
However, the bookies made an instruction to the bank to transfer a sum of money to you. You never got it, so they bank did not follow the bookies instructions. The bookies need to chase their own bank - they should be able to request for the payment to be traced.
The bookies are the only ones who can do anything here.
Or the bookies could just phone up their bank now, explain the situation and the funds could be applied without them being returned.
No. It is routed via Debit Card, so it could be a fault with the merchant service provider, which may not be a bank...
Of course, the MSP can only transfer the funds that the merchant has available to send.
Having read the advice on here I’ve been back to the bookmaker a few times and have pointed out that they owed me the money and I haven’t received it. Whether or not the issue was with them, their service provider or anything else is not a concern of mine. They owe me the money and I haven’t received it and it’s their responsibility. I used a number of the terms that I read on here and it seems to have had some affect as they are looking at it again which is a breakthrough.
To date I have not received the money but something appears to be happening. My expectation is that I will not get the money and I will have to get into the complaints procedures but we’ll see!
One thing that is puzzling me, the bookie always claims that the bank can trace the ARN, The bank always claim that they can't. The bookie says that they got the ARN from their bank so know it has transferred ok, my bank (who say they can't view ARN's) have no trace of the money.
Who can actually see ARN's? One of the bank or bookie are wrong!
In addition, the bookie have asked their provider to re-trace the cash but have had no response. I won't give this up but am really REALLY losing patience. They don't seem to grasp that although it may have gone from somewhere and didn't arrive with me, the fact that THEY owe me the money and I haven't received it really IS their....THEIR problem, not mine.
Your bookie is telling the truth.
The "Acquirer Reference Number" is a unique code that the *merchant* area of your bank can use to investigate under.
Personally, I would write to Mastercard Europe or Visa Europe or Amex UK (whichever is your card branding) and ask them to investigate.
The card is my debit card. The bank are adamant they can't trace the ARN, so if they are wrong as TUTV Viewer says and can find it with a bit of effort, who's case would I need to get on to there to, err, 'make them reconsider'?
I don’t know about you, but my bank account can get very ‘cluttered’ at times with many credits/debits.
I had a not dissimilar issue to yourself a while ago where a credit to my account had ‘disappeared’.
I was adamant I’d not received the credit; the ‘payer’ was adamant the credit had been paid.
It transpired that I had indeed received the credit; I just didn’t recognise it on my bank statement.
For some reason (that I never actually pursued) the ‘credit’ to my account appeared in 2 separate smaller payments; it wasn’t a great deal, £70 or thereabouts I think.
I, mistakenly, associated the two smaller payments with a completely different creditor altogether as I didn’t recognise the ‘description‘ (or the amounts!) of the payment on my bank statement; (egg on face!
Sometimes the description of a transaction on bank statements can be a little misleading and the ‘creditors’ name is not always immediately apparent.
For instance, my wife receives credit payments from a company and the ‘description’ is a line of 4 letters and 12 digits; there is no ready way, from the bank statement alone, of recognizing where the credit emanated. Another example; if ones withdraws cash from an ATM at my local Co-Op store the payment appears on the bank statement as a ‘Bank of Ireland’ transaction.
Is it possible that the amount/s you are owed has actually reached your bank account but you are not able to cross-reference the amount/s or the ‘creditors’ description?
Do you know ‘exactly’ how much they have (supposedly) paid you? Have they paid you in several smaller amounts?
Or, has the ‘credit’ gone to another of your nominated accounts. i.e. not necessarily the account from which it emanated?
Not sure whether any of the above is of any use to you; however, when it comes to dealing with Financial institutions and getting to grips with the myriad of ‘processes and procedures’ it can feel like ‘you versus the world’.
You have my sympathy. Good luck.