SWIFT Transfers

d8veh

I sent some money (£1600) to a friend in Bali by Swift on 15th Jan. The recipient still hasn't received the money - about 20 days. Does anyone know if this is normal or has the recipient's bank manager stolen the money? My bank wants to charge me an additional £15 to make enquiries, but they weren't offering certainty of finding the money!
Also, I asked for all charges at both ends to be taken from my account - not from the £1600, but I don't see any entries in my statement. Is this significant?

d8veh

Thanks Mark. I just asked my bank(Smile the internet Bank) to do the transfer. I used their secure messaging system, so the y took the money immediately out of my account. It's now 4 weeks and the money still has not arrived. I asked the bank to search foe the money via Swift. They said it will take 10 working days and they charged me another £20 to do the search.

d8veh

Its now 6 weeks since the money disappeared and 20 days since I paid for the bank to trace the money. They still haven't given me any information after several phone calls. All they say is that they don't have a response to their trace request. Surely they must be doing something wrong. Has anybody any suggestions on a way forward - I am totally frustrated with this situation. The bank doesn't give me any hope of finding the money!

d8veh

Thanks for your help, guys.
Here's an update.
It's Smile the Internet Bank, so I need the name and address of who to complain to. I wrote to them nearly 2 weeks ago asking for these details. After about 4 days - no reply, so I requested again. This time I got a message to say that I had been put on the supervisors waiting list. After nearl 2 weeks still no reply. It's now more than 2 months since I requested the transfer and 8 weeks since they said that they did it. I got a message yesterday to say that their partner bank is still waiting for a response from whoever. Does anyone know the name and address of the Chief Executive of Smile Bank, so I can write to him?

glider3560

Write to their complaints department: http://www.smile.co.uk/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=Smile%2FPage%2FsmView&cid=1006517693555
[EMAIL="I_am_frowning@smile.co.uk"][/EMAIL]

d8veh

Well, I managed to get hold of the "Customer Services Manager" (although in her message she appears to be downgraded a bit) on the phone. She was very sympathetic and told me that she would investigate and get back to me. Here's the results:

Hello Mr ****

Following our telephone conversation yesterday, I have spoken to our foreign team regarding the foreign payment you made on the 15th January 2010.

Having spoke to our foreign team I can confirm that we have sent several
chasing messages to our corresponding bank. We have also sent several messages over the last two weeks including urgent messages to the international beneficiary bank directly asking them to provide us with an update,to date we have not received a reply from either.

I have been advised that our only course of action is to continue to chase the beneficiary bank. I can confirm that the payment was correctly sent to the details that you provided to us by secure message and that no bank error has been made. All foreign payments are sent at your own risk and the secure message you send to us confirms you accept this prior to us making the transfer for you.

The charge of £20.00 for the trace is charged in-line with our standard tariff. This charge reflects the time and work involved in chasing the foreign bank and also covers any charges that the foreign bank may make when replying to the trace.

I can confirm that I have addressed the other matter of secure messages not being replied to promptly with the Team Manager and thank you for bringing this to my attention.

If you need to discuss the matter further please contact me on 0161 829 5764 between 7.00 and 15.00.

Regards

Claire Ogden
Team Manager

I can't find anything in the info they gave me that says I send the money at my risk. Is this right? I think I'll crawl away to a dark corner and top myself. I'm totally fed up.

jambosans

d8veh wrote: »

I can't find anything in the info they gave me that says I send the money at my risk. Is this right? I think I'll crawl away to a dark corner and top myself. I'm totally fed up.

From the smile FAQ on foreign transactions, essential information page:-

smile wrote:

Q. What do I need to know before requesting a foreign transaction?

A. All foreign transactions are done at your own risk. By this, we mean that we do everything that we can to get the funds to the receiver with the information that you're provided. smile can't be held responsible if the information you've supplied is insufficient or incorrect or if there's a delay caused by the foreign banks. When we process a foreign transaction, if all the information you've given us is correct your transfer will usually be received within 5 working days. However funds may sometimes be delayed by the banking practices of other countries.

I would ask the recipient in Bali to contact their bank. They may have more luck than smile.

d8veh

It's now more than three months and the money is still missing. I used the bank's official complaints procedure, but all I got from them was a letter saying that they keep sending messages and have tried to contact the recipient bank, but because of the time difference they got no reply. The letter said that if they don't hear from me, they will consider the matter closed. Naturally, I rang them up (the complaints dept) and told them that I didn't want them to close the matter. The recipient has been to their bank loads of times, but they deny that they have the money.
Please, someone, how can I sort this out. Can I take the bank to court?

Olipro

actually, I suggest you get the police involved, this looks more like a fraud case.

Woby_Tide

Ask Smile to provide the details of the SWIFT transfer they initiated i.e the message content and the Acknowledgement details. Then give those details to you friend in Bali to ask the other bank to trace it backwards from that point.

opinions4u

Olipro wrote: »

actually, I suggest you get the police involved, this looks more like a fraud case.

I wonder how many officers would volunteer to go to Bali in pursuit of this investigation? :rotfl: