This time last year I had a life-changing amount of money stolen.
There was no obvious scam. I hadn’t sent any payments. It was just gone.
The police weren’t helpful and the bank did nothing but gaslight me the entire time.
Today the Financial Ombudsman found the bank at fault and have ordered everything to be paid back + compensation.
I cannot begin to express the relief I’m feeling after such an awful year.
Lots of happy crying this morning 🥲
@phill any tips people should take away and learn from?
@rwitherspoon frustratingly they won’t tell me the full details, so it’s hard to say what I or anyone could do differently.
But these things ultimately worked in my favour:
- getting a crime number asap
- noting everything the bank says down
- assuming bank is out to screw me
@phill @rwitherspoon good tips, but to be honest I read things like this and it reminds me of a more basic thing. I should probably check my transactions every now and then! Presumably that's how you noticed. I worry that someone could empty my bank account down to the last thousand quid (enough to avoid bills bouncing) and I don't know when I would even notice...
but apparently I don't worry enough to do anything about it.
@harry_wood @rwitherspoon definitely having some sort of routine to check your accounts is a good idea.
In my particular instance I checked fairly regularly, but rather sinisterly banking alerts weren’t being sent to me (despite receiving marketing alerts, which is what prompted me to check that day). Assume alerts won’t help you either.
@bardi Can you do that? I've often thought "Why doesn't my bank just notify me of *every* transaction?"
@phill @harry_wood @rwitherspoon it’s a bit annoying especially if you are anti-notifications, but having them sent after every transaction is prolly the fastest way to catch something immediately.