Your problems: My student loan was paid to someone else

I am a student at Birkbeck and my September maintenance loan was paid into the wrong account – one at Yorkshire Building Society instead of my Starling account. I am certain I entered my correct details as I copied and pasted them, but the Student Finance England (SFE) system saved them incorrectly. SFE’s portal only shows the last two digits of the account, so I had no way to check the full details.

This means thousands of pounds of student support have gone into someone else’s account. The Student Loans Company (SLC) says I will have to wait up to 30 days for a bank recall, while being blamed for entering the wrong details.

I am a single parent with no other income apart from child maintenance, as I am starting university after being made redundant. This loan was meant to cover my rent and living costs, and without it I have nothing to live on.

Yorkshire Building Society told me it operates the “confirmation of payee” system, whereby recipient account names are checked against corresponding account numbers, so I have no idea how SLC managed to send the money to the wrong organisation. If the money had been sent to an incorrect bank account, it could indeed have taken up to 30 days to trace and recall the payment. Luckily, as Yorkshire is a building society, its account numbers have 10 digits, whereas your Starling account has the eight digits normal for banks. Yorkshire instantly recognised the payment was not meant for one of its customers, and the money was returned automatically to SLC.

Though your money had been returned, SLC said it would still take a few days for the payment to be resent and clear to your account. You have a daughter who is receiving NHS care for mental health needs, and the stability of your household had already been put at risk through lack of the loan as you missed paying your rent in September. I asked SLC to expedite payment as another month without the money could ruin your credit record and cause serious issues with your landlord.

A fter I explained your circumstances, a SLC spokesperson said: “Given her situation I have, in this instance, arranged for the payment to be sent same day and it will clear to her account later today.” You have now received a total of £5,723, including parents’ learning allowance of £675 to see you through until January.

I bought a mobile on eBay but never received it. The seller posted the item via Royal Mail, which provided proof of delivery. This showed that the address the seller put on the label is not the address I provided at checkout.

I opened a dispute with eBay, and it told me that the item was delivered as per the tracking link, so it closed the case in favour of the seller. This is despite me speaking on the phone to multiple eBay agents who agreed the address on the label was not the address I provided. I appealed the decision but eBay again found in favour of the seller, who is still selling things on the website. Please help.

The invoice from the seller and the proof of delivery photo provided by Royal Mail showed the same tracking number, but the invoice included your address in Clapham, while the address label fastened to the package was for a hair and beauty salon in Blackheath.

You paid £597 for an iPhone 16 Pro, including £15.26 for eBay’s buyer protection (of which there was precious little in evidence), so I asked eBay to consider the evidence again and refund you. Initially, it refused, saying that because you had chosen to pursue a refund through your payment provider for the same transaction, your purchase was no longer eligible for protection under the eBay money back guarantee.

“This is because only one resolution process can be active at a time, and once a payment provider dispute is opened, any eBay money-back guarantee claim for the same order is automatically closed,” a spokesperson said.

I pointed out that you contacted your bank about a chargeback refund after eBay had rejected your claim. A few days later it said: “We’ve looked into Mr H’s case again with our customer experience team, and understand how frustrating this experience has been for him. We will be issuing him with a full refund. We’re also taking a closer look at the seller’s account to make sure the right actions are taken.”