Bank Transfer Claims

What are Bank Transfer Claims?

Bank transfer scam victims to get refunds from May 2019. Up until the 28th of May 2019 banks were not held responsible for fraudulent bank transfer payments. Unlike credit card and debit card transactions that offer a certain level of protection under the section 75 rules.

According to which.co.uk ‘almost £400m has been lost to bank transfer fraud in the past two years. ‘These payments were made to fraudsters for a variety of different scams including goods and services which never came to fruition.

The new scheme comes more than two years after Which.co.uk launched a ‘super-complaint’ to push banks and regulators to protect people better. Consumers were increasingly falling victim to scams that resulted in them transferring money to fraudsters. 

Read more here – Which?

Many Timeshare consumers lose money by paying by bank transfer for timeshare resale and timeshare claim scams. However, if you spent even a small amount of that purchase on a credit card, you are still protected for the whole sum, including the bank transfer.

People who have been a victim of an authorised push payment (APP) should report it to their bank as usual. Please be advised that this is a voluntary code and not all banks have signed up to it.

Which banks have signed up to the code?

The following banks and payment service providers have signed up to the code:

• Bank of Scotland
• Barclays
• Cahoot 
• Cater Allen
• First Direct
• Halifax
• HSBC UK
• Intelligent Finance
• Lloyds Bank
• M&S Bank
• Metro Bank
• NatWest
• RBS
• Santander
• Starling Bank
• Ulster Bank

Big names that haven’t signed up so far include Tesco Bank, Co-operative Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank and Virgin Money.

Your first port of call is to complain to your bank. You should also then report the scam to Action Fraud, telephone 0300 123 2040.

If your bank won’t help, or you haven’t heard back within eight weeks, you can then go to the ombudsman

If you would like some help with processing your complaint, then get in contact with us. The financial conduct authority fully regulates us.

FCA reg number 831699.