20 business days for a response?

endofrainbow

Had, what I consider to be a serious issue with my online banking (PTSB). I noticed that there was a direct debit mandate set up for a company with whom I have absolutely no dealings, nothing was presented for payment but I find it disturbing that a 3rd party can access my online banking and set up a direct debit mandate.

I contacted CS who told me it was an IT issue but I don't consider that to be a proper response. I opted to make an official complaint and received a letter telling me that matter will be put under investigation and if the matter is not resolved within 20 business days, they will update me at that point.

Thoughts as to what actually may have happened?

JTMan

Probably a human error / typo on the account number by someone. Small chance that it was malicious by the 3rd party.

Who was the 3rd party?

endofrainbow

It was Barnardos Charity - also, my existing DD had been removed and this new one in it's place.

dobsdave

endofrainbow wrote: »

It was Barnardos Charity - also, my existing DD had been removed and this new one in it's place.

existing DD to who?

endofrainbow

Bord Gais

dobsdave

endofrainbow wrote: »

Bord Gais

Ok, thats weird. Obviously someone with big thumbs in PTSB head office

chris85

In fairness it was not 20 days for a response but you got a letter saying it would be 20 days for an investigation to be completed or given an update. Big difference there.

I would have thought two weeks for an investigation is fair but depending on how busy or many complaints they get they may just be covering themselves to make sure they delivery a response within a realistic time frame. No point in saying 10 days when they are overloaded with other complaints and they will not get it done on time.

uberwolf

the Bank is following this - https://www.financialombudsman.ie/complaints-process/

5 day hold, 20 day hold, 40 day hold/right to refer to ombudsman and 20 day updates thereafter till resolved.

BazzaDP

I'm confused.

So a DD you did not ask for has been set up against your account? Ok fair enough that can happen. However it is rare. Are you absolutely sure you, or your partner didn't agree to this to be set up? Seems unlikely Barnados are trying to scam you though a typo in account number/IBAN might mean this has accidentally been set up for your account rather than someone with a similar account number/IBAN who did mean to set this up.

Next you say your Bord Gais DD has vanished and you believe it's been replaced by this DD? That sounds extremely unlikely. DDs for separate companies are completely unrelated.

DDs are incredibly easy to set up. All you need are the account details. DDs are set up and owned by the company you pay the DD to and not yourself - they don't need access to your online banking to set this up (unlike a standing order) so don't worry that people have access to that.

That sounds super scary though, right? So what's to stop thieves emptying your account with a fake DD? Two things: 1) Only authorised companies can set up DDs and a bank needs to support authorising a company and typically will only do this for a business they know and are happy to back. 2) You can demand for a no-questions-asked refund for any DD within 8 weeks of any DD taking money from your account (even if the company was correct to take if) and that's extended to 13 months if you can show it shouldn't have been taken. That's not to say you don't owe the money btw, just that you don't have to pay it by DD if you don't want to. The bank is obliged to refund the money ASAP and claim the refund bank from the company (hence why they will be careful in authorising companies to collect DDs as they may end up paying out money in the short term). Accidents will happen occasionally but these two things actually make it reasonably safe for the consumer, while still allowing the convienience of setting up DDs to be quickly and easily. Personally I'm happy with the system as is and wouldn't want the hassle of paperwork to stop or delay setting up a DD.

endofrainbow

Thanks for the detailed reply. I am absolutely positive that I didn't set up a DD for Barnardos (neither has anyone else - nobody else has access to my online banking).

It was only when I went to check the status of my Bord Gais DD that I noticed it was no longer there and in it's place was a DD mandate for Barnardos (I took a screen-shot). 2 days after I reported it to CS, the original Bord Gais DD had been reinstated with no trace of the Barnardos one. While I understand it was not presented for payment, and that I would not be liable, I still find it very disturbing that this can happen - human error or no.

BazzaDP

OK. As I say mistakes do happen but they are rare. If they were common banks would enforce more stringent checks when setting up DDs and everything would take much longer.

It is disturbing, for the small percentage of people like you who find unauthorised DDs set up against their account but, again, I believe it's worth it in long run for convienience easily set up DDs bring - but appreciate not all may agree.

Anyway good luck to you and hopefully bank will dig up the details and find it was a mistake and it was intended for someone with a similar account number/IBAN, and they can sort it out and give you an explanation.

amdublin

Was it a direct debit or a standing order??

I'd assume it's more common for people to set up standing orders not dds for Barnardos.

Would Barnardos even be set up on dd system with banks Generally dds are used by companies that are billing a different amount every month.

I'd suggest you double check if it was a direct debit or a s/o.

endofrainbow

no need to double check - it was a direct debit mandate

amdublin

endofrainbow wrote: »

no need to double check - it was a direct debit mandate

Strange. (To be dd instead of s/o. Most charity donations are set up as s/o's)

Can they give you a copy of the mandate?

Or even tell you: is it your bank account no on it (typo by another person who wanted to set it up on their account)??
Does it have your name on it? (Fraud?!)
Is it signed?

Or has the bank just made a mistake and set it up on wrong (your) account.

Was it the same bank person who cancelled your other one and set this one up??
Or is it just a complete computer glitch and no human was involved.

endofrainbow

ok had a reply from PTSB as follows:
*
Please be advised that this issue arose due to a technical issue, whereby certain Direct Debit Originator names were mis-represented on our Open 24 Internet Banking Service. Please note this was rectified by our IT Department once identified and did not impact on the Direct Debit billing*

It goes on to say that they are obliged to inform me that if I remain dissatisfied with the Bank's response, I may refer my concerns to the Financial Services Ombudsman for adjudication...