Kelly was off on a trip overseas, so she transferred $1000 onto a travel card. The money never showed up in Kelly’s account. Kelly contacted her travel card provider and her bank to find her missing $1000 but no one could tell her where it had gone. The bank believed that the money had gone into an inactive account with her travel card provider. Her travel card provider believed the money had bounced back to the bank. After trying to resolve the complaint for some time, Kelly brought her complaint to FSCL.
Dispute
The travel card provider disputed that the money was in their system and continued to claim that the money was with the bank. Kelly’s bank said that the money had definitely gone into the travel card provider’s account and that it no longer had any control over the money. Kelly did not know where her money had ended up. But she wanted it back.
Review
We reviewed the evidence and found that it was most likely that the money was within the travel card provider’s account. We asked the travel card provider to check their records and, on review, the travel card provider found the missing money.
We recommended the travel card provider return the money and pay Kelly an extra $250 for stress and inconvenience.
Resolution
The travel card provider agreed with our recommendation and returned the money along with the compensation. Kelly was very happy with this result and accepted the settlement.
Insights for participants
This case could have been resolved more effectively and without the need for our involvement or an award of compensation if the travel card provider had conducted a more thorough review initially to find the missing funds.