Advice Needed : Santander missing money transfer (Mandate)

gotneed

Hi everyone,
I'm seeking some advice on behalf of my mum who has had a [FONT=&quot]horrendous time with Santander after moving her account to them in November. Its a long story, but here we go!

My mum had a Natwest account for 30 years! but was talked into moving to Santander by a sales person assistant. They moved all her direct debits and pension etc. These are fine (I think), the problem is with a credit card payment.

She has been happily paying her CC by taking the statement to Natwest with some cash and cheque(s) and they processed the transaction. However Santander wouldn't allow this and so she was forced to setup a Mandate.
This she did over the phone, where they asked for the sort code, bank account and CC number. They then said this is set-up as 'Mandate 1' and when she wanted to pay the bill to go into a branch quote Mandate 1 and state the amount to be paid.

This she did and sent £462.39 to Tesco credit card directly from her Santander account funds, this was on November 19th and still Tesco have not recieved the payment. I've looked at the mandate that was set-up and the last 16 digits are completely wrong - so far wrong its impossible to be a typing error.

We are now being fobbed-off by Tesco and Santander each saying its not their fault, I've pushed Tesco to investigate more and waiting to hear from them.

My question is who is to blame? the Mandate is wrong but that was the fault of the person on the other end of the phone.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you for reading and a Happy New Year

Ben
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zppp

What do you mean by mandate. My understanding of a mandate is a form which one would sign, do you mean that they set up some kind of regular payment i.e. bill payment?

jonesMUFCforever

How did Santander get the 16 digit PAN number?
If this was supplied by your mother then it is her fault IMO.

Why or why did she transfer her account - why does she not go back to Nat West now and transfer back?

premierfella

There is not a lot, if anything at all, to blame Tesco CC for. The payment was set up and sent by Santander. The only part Tesco play in that process is receiving it and applying it to the 16 digit account number quoted in the reference field. The possibilities are that the money:
1. is sitting in a suspense account at Tesco waiting to be applied to the correct account;
2. was credited to an existing Tesco Credit Card account (the 16 digits in the reference field the payment was actually sent to);
3. bounced back to Santander (unlikely as it should have made its way back to your mother's account by now);
4. was sent to a non-Tesco Credit Card sort code and account number (remote possibility!)

Tesco may be able to investigate where the money is if 1 or 2 applies, or tell you when they returned it if 3.

However, in this situation I would be pushing Santander with a complaint, particularly if your mother is 100% certain of the card details she gave over the phone in the first instance to set up the bill payment details. I would also be double checking that the sort code and account number used for the payment actually is Tesco Credit Card and not some other random card company given that the reference number on the instruction is not your mum's Tesco Credit Card number.

gotneed

Thanks zppp, jonesMUFCforever & premierfella for your replies,
It is a Bill payment but Santander refer to them as a Mandate.

My mum set this up on the phone which she was adviced to do by one of the branch staff. They asked for the sort code, account number & reference, in this case its the CC number. My mum quoted these from the back of the Tesco CC statement. The sortcode and account are correct however the reference isn't, every digit is different. I've checked all her other accounts and cards just encase she quoted one of these but this isn't the case.

I don't blame Tesco, they have been very good and waived the late payment fee.

Santander on the other hand have been less than helpfull. They have admitted fault as they credited £5 for the inconvenience and promised everything would be sorted but this was at the end of November. Also promising to call back with details and never did.

My mums been worried all Christmas about it - I'm going to go into the branch with her next week but wanted to go armed with all the facts - hence my cry for help.

Thanks again

Ben

ERICS_MUM

orry, this sounds a bit of a lecture, but I have experience of Santander's [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] systems and customer service.

All I can say is that you will need to push and push Santander for an answer, and keep going higher up the "chain of command" to get anywhere. Take names (surnames, not just "Jenny"), phone nos, dept names/location, dates/times of all conversations, confirm in writing anything that is verbally agreed, send it by recorded delivery then phone to check receipt.

My sister and I did all this for 6 months until they refunded to her £20,000 that was fraudulently taken from her account. It just so happened that the £20,000 had been paid into her account that day by Santander themselves as a mortgage increase to pay for a house extension. BUT they completely denied that this could be an "inside job". In the end I contacted a director on Santander's spanish head office board of directors and he passed it on to someone who did eventually get it sorted.

Sis has moved to Nat West now and is pleased so far - loves their on-line banking which is 100% better than Santander's.

Good luck for you and your Mum.