Winnipeg man trying to get money back after sending to closed account

A Winnipeg man claims he’s now stuck in limbo trying to get his money back after mistakenly making a payment to a closed credit card account.

Hayden Jones was trying to make a credit card payment of $400.62 from his TD bank account on April 5, a Friday, to a President’s Choice Mastercard when he accidentally chose the wrong payee, sending it instead to his closed Collabria Visa account.

“It’s a frustrating amount of money to be out of, especially when you’re trying to budget with how expensive things are nowadays,” said Jones.

Jones says he noticed he made the mistake after checking his account the following Monday. He claims he contacted both TD and Collabria to try to get his money back, with both sides, he says pointing at each other when it comes to returning his funds.

“TD says they can’t do anything at all, Collabria has to do it. And then Collabria says they can’t do it, TD has to do a payment trace,” said Jones.

Continuing to contact both companies, Jones seemed to make some progress after he says Collabria told him over the phone back in May that they would be able to send him a cheque in the mail, only for them to follow up with him in June to say that’s not possible.

CityNews contacted both Collabria and TD about his situation. Collabria said in a statement they won’t be commenting on individual cases publicly, while TD also in a statement said their investigation into the matter is still active and are working with Jones to address his concerns.

Leigh Taylor with LCTaylor Licensed Insolvency Trustee says consumers trying to get money that financial institutions owe them need to be prepared for a fight .

“Generally speaking, you’re going to be successful at the end, but you have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops of people at lower levels that will be telling you it’s somebody’s else’s fault. The first person you talk to, probably has no authority or right to write a cheque whatsoever. By the time you go through his or her boss, up the chain, it’s frustrating to say the least and very difficult for the average person,” said Taylor.

“At the end of the day, it is just frustrating,” added Jones. “It’s frustrating that this is a situation people are being put in because I know there’s probably many other people that are just having this money, theirs, that they have worked for, that’s just gone.”