I ended up paying someone else’s mortgage after Nationwide took money from my account – then bank ordered ME to pay out

A FURIOUS Nationwide customer ended up paying someone else’s mortgage due to a banking error – and yet he was the one asked to cough up £500.

Adrian Froggatt, 36, was shocked to discover that £763 had been taken out of his account for a mortgage payment in May, despite not having a mortgage with the bank.

After complaining about the cock-up, the operations manager was told that the mortgage broker had made a mistake when inputting another person’s sort code and account number.

This had then led to his account being mistakenly charged.

Adrian was refunded the money and sent an additional £500 – which he was told was compensation.

The bank then demanded this £500 back, claiming it was in fact cashback owed on the mortgage.

It admitted that an employee had made a mistake in thinking the sum was compensation money.

Recounting the £763 withdrawal, Adrian told the Telegraph: “It popped me into my overdraft for a couple of days, until they had refunded someone else’s mortgage payment.”

He added that the incident had caused “concern about how it was that they managed to take someone else’s mortgage out of my bank account.”

He continued: “The week before it had happened we put an offer in on a house, so I was getting bank statements ready and I had a mortgage adviser meeting a few days later.

“It bewilders me that they’ve had this massive error, and then it’s flagged up and they have paid the cash back in, but they’ve never fixed the original error.

“It’s just ridiculous how it has all come about.”

The disgruntled customer added that he would be changing banks as soon as his own mortgage (with another lender) was sorted, saying he had “lost all faith in [Nationwide] as a bank”.

Despite the incident sending Adrian into his overdraft, he initially only received £150 in compensation, followed by a further £50 after the second cock-up.

A customer service agent apologised for “not meeting expectations” but confirmed the bank would still be withdrawing the £500.

However, after being approached, Nationwide finally agreed to let Adrian keep the money.

Adrian said he was “delighted”.

Before this development, a Nationwide spokesperson said: “We apologise to our customer after an error by a mortgage broker meant a direct debit was wrongly set up on his account.

“Unfortunately, the cashback our mortgage customers were due was also incorrectly sent to him.

“As the customer shouldn’t have received the £500, we have requested the amount be re-debited from his account.

“However, we accept we should have been clearer on the initial phone call about the cashback. In recognition of the inconvenience caused by this issue, we have offered compensation of £200.”