Massive problem with DGCs saving accounts

No none of them said this. And why did they decide to put child A's money into child B's account? If it was because of a change in the law then surely both accounts would have been stopped and a letter sent to me requesting parental permission.

sazz1 Did any of the letters you opened refer to the changes in the law re potential money laundering and ask you for how you wanted to proceed? I would have expected them to contact you, if they did, but you were unaware, they had no choice but to make the accounts in accordance with the legal requirements. If none of the letters did this, they are at fault.

From personal experience I would hesitate to put the words trust and banks in the same sentence. I do not mean any sort of fraud but have found incompetence to be rife. If you have all the past paperwork, you should be fine in sorting it all out but..... don't expect any speedy result. When and if it is sorted out to your satisfaction and they have been proven to be at fault do make sure you get financial compensation and don't necessarily accept their first offer.

Sazzi forget the blame game. What has happened has happened and what you need now is advice on how to put it right.

It will first probably need sometime sorting the problem out. Write down exactly when and why the accounts were opened and their purpose and then track down the exact dates that the bank -messed it up- made their mistake, attach a copy of the two statements showing this to the narrative you are writing. then continue the narrative , with everything else that happened -other childs account closed down etc etc. Attach a copy of the relevant bank statement to your narrative at any time.

Then sit down read it through double checking everything you said, so that you have a narrative that can act as a constant reminder to you of exactly what happened.

Next write a letter to the bank briefly stating what happened and what you want - the whole thing sorted out to back as it was meant to be, then attach a copy of your narrative to the back of the letter and send it to the Chairman of the relevant bank. It is possible to get his name and address by googling 'Chairman YY bank address'. Do not bother with the local branch they will just try to see your off.

If that does not work, or even beforhand,make an appointement with your Citizens Advice office, they have skilled financial advisors who can help you as well.

Whatever you do, make sure you keep the original ofthe narrative and the bank statements. Send every communication by recorded delivery.

If you get no joy from the bank( and I think you have to share some of the blame by not checking the statements) then surely the parents will be able to sort this out and even things up between the two children?

I recently became a granny and wanted to open an account for my GS. I have to fill in forms which they then sent to my DS and DiL as they have to OK it. I have to provide a birth certificate for the GS too. Because the family live abroad I'm not sure how it is affected and as my DS took a while to send the birth certificate it has not got sorted yet. It is complicated I know. When my own children were young my DM opened accounts for them but when they reached 7 years old they had to be transferred into their own names. I expect things are now even more complicated due to the ammount of fraud. It is sad that GP's have to jump through hoops just to save for their GC but that's because of people trying to bend the rules!

It’s not unknown for banks to make unauthorised transfers between different account holders.
A local farmer was so enraged by the behaviour of NatWest in this regard, that he took to dumping large quantities of manure outside our local branch.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/farmer-gets-pound-300-000-payout-after-manure-protest-against-bank-634357.html%3famp
I hope you don’t have to go to those lengths Sazz. Good luck!

I loathe incompetence in any workplace, but you'd think you could trust a bank to get it right. Dreadful.

Somebody obviously moved the standing order payments to a different account

That's a serious banking error. I hope things get sorted out.

I have now as I have more time to sort out all the paperwork now we are retired. I think I need to realise banks do make mistakes and computer systems are only as good as whoever operates them. Somebody obviously moved the standing order payments to a different account.

I would of been opening them and checking them then filing them away.

Grandma11
I didn't realise this and hoped for the money to be a surprise present for the children when they reached 18 for help with university or driving lessons etc.
I have now told DD and she's horrified at what this bank has done. She said if they closed Child A's monthly saving account they shouldn't have kept taking the money and should have refunded it. It shouldn't have gone into the other child's account. Such a mess by a well known high street bank.

Over the course of the last ten years the interest rate will have changed anyway, and not for the better ☹️

As it is obviously a mistake and you didn't mean it to happen this way, I am sure the bank will be able to sort it out. You just need to persevere with your letters to the bank and make sure you keep track of what they say. It may take some time to sort it all out.

During that ten years there have been a lot of changes in the Law regarding Children’s investments and especially those originally opened by Grandparents.
Originally, a Grandparent could open a high interest account in a Child’s name and operate it themselves on a Child’s behalf. A loophole was found where some Grandparents were investing substantial amounts of their own money to gain the higher rate, and withdrawing it before the Child reached the Age where the money and account were handed over for them to use themselves. Hence the big Change.
Now, it’s only a Parent that can open and operate a bank account or investment scheme account on behalf of their Child or Children. The Letters that you Received probably explained all this to you, and the result of not acting upon this information at the time is probably responsible for the action taken by the bank following the Governments Guidelines.
We ended up transferring our Eldest Grandchild’s savings into a different scheme, but only her Parents can operate this for her, and her younger siblings have now got new accounts opened and operated by their parents into which we pay into via them.
I’m sure that you will get it sorted out eventually, but it may involve Parents opening up new accounts as Above.

Sorry this has happened sazzl, I hope your hear back from the bank soon.

In this day and age you need to keep a careful watch on bank accounts as there is so much fraud going on. What if that money had been going to someone else's account?

Well I knew they were taking the money from my account every month as I check my bank online every week. Always was going to put them in a file but working away and often 60 hours a week just didn't get round to it. Kept every statement though. Can't understand why they closed child A's monthly saving account as I never requested it.

sazz1 I just don't understand why you'd not open letters and check statements - for ten years?