Decoding Barclays statement - who are Southampton Premier?

deeplyblue

I'm involved in the winding up of an estate, and have recently received a closing statement from Barclays. Most of it is pretty straightforward, there's one bit where Barclays and another bank shuttled some payments between them as payment from one account that we closed went to another account we though was open (the Barclays one) which wasn't.

So there are a couple of payments which come in, and immediately get returned - twice. So far, so inconvenient, but that has been sorted out.

However, on the same day as one of these ping-pong transfers, another payment came in and went out. It's not a large amount, but enough to be worth a little effort to track it down.

This third payment is listed under the heading "Advice" - which is not very helpful and Barclays say they have no idea what it is, or where it came from or where it went. (I have to say, Barclays seem like a money launderer's dream - they have no way of tracing anything it seems).

Both the payment in and the one out are labelled "Rtnd Cred", and the only additional clue is that against the word Ref is the cryptic phrase, "Southampton Premie" (presumably a truncated "Premier") This is listed also on the outgoing payments on the other "ping-pong" payments. That bank, however, is adamant that the phrase means nothing to them while Barclays, in both the branch and central customer services, seem to have no clue what something they printed in a statement might mean.

So - just in case there's someone here who has done inter-bank transfers with Barclays, or has come across these people elsewhere, I'm flagging up the issue here. I'll be asking the same question on one or two other financial places, but I hope MSE has enough people visiting for someone to know what gives.

Oh yes, and I have tried Googling it.

db

ERICS_MUM

Barclays are telling you porkies. All interbank payments are traceable via the payment services companies - CHAPS or BACS depending on how the payments are made. Info is passed from the sending bank to the receiving bank via CHAPS/BACS in a standard format so that each bank is identifiable.

Barclays should contact the other bank and betweeen them they are completely capable of sorting it out, even if the payment was created by a customer on their on-line banking system.

Hope this makes sense, it's not written very well!

Linda

Cmdr_Bond

You haven't been to a football match recently?

Southampton vs Man Utd was at the back end of Jan, I believe at home to SFC.

I don't knof if SFC are in the premier league, but I know they used to be.

isplumm

deeplyblue wrote: »

Both the payment in and the one out are labelled "Rtnd Cred", and the only additional clue is that against the word Ref is the cryptic phrase, "Southampton Premie" (presumably a truncated "Premier") This is listed also on the outgoing payments on the other "ping-pong" payments. That bank, however, is adamant that the phrase means nothing to them while Barclays, in both the branch and central customer services, seem to have no clue what something they printed in a statement might mean.



db

I assume that it is nothing to do with Southampton Premier Inn - there is one in Southampton near the footy game ...

Mark

isplumm

Cmdr_Bond wrote: »

Southampton vs Man Utd was at the back end of Jan, I believe at home to SFC.

I don't knof if SFC are in the premier league, but I know they used to be.

No such luck - now in 1st division ....:mad:

Mark

jonesMUFCforever

isplumm wrote: »

No such luck - now in 1st division ....:mad:

Mark

League 1 isn't it?

In pre decimal that is the old 3rd division.:p

deeplyblue

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

Barclays are telling you porkies. All interbank payments are traceable via the payment services companies - CHAPS or BACS depending on how the payments are made. Info is passed from the sending bank to the receiving bank via CHAPS/BACS in a standard format so that each bank is identifiable.

Barclays should contact the other bank and betweeen them they are completely capable of sorting it out, even if the payment was created by a customer on their on-line banking system.

Hope this makes sense, it's not written very well!

Linda

Well, your post makes sense. Barclays does not!

The next question is how to get them to admit that they could find out, and the one after that is how to persuade them to do it.

I remember asking the Halifax to trace a payment and the young man I spoke to chuckled, "You don't think we keep a track of all payments, do you?" I think I said, "Yes. Otherwise how would you know where to send the money?" He assured me I had got it wrong. Presumably somebody gets hold of a bank and says, "I want lots of money," and the bank says, "Certainly, sir, do you want it in used fivers or just sent untraceably to a Swiss bank?"

I'd settle down to an exchange of letters with the local manager, but I would like this sorted out in under 3 months - preferably in under 3 days (bank working days, of course).

db

deeplyblue

isplumm wrote: »

I assume that it is nothing to do with Southampton Premier Inn - there is one in Southampton near the footy game ...

Mark

Thanks, but as far as I am concerned, both the football team and the Inn are just things cluttering up the Google search. Unless one or the other has been used for some rather unusual bits of petty money laundering.

db

BreamoreBoy

deeplyblue wrote: »

The next question is how to get them to admit that they could find out, and the one after that is how to persuade them to do it.
db

Would it help to print out the post from erics mum and stuff it under their noses?

ERICS_MUM

First of all the branch needs to check if its an electronic payment (e.g. BACS, CHAPS, Faster Payment, on-line payment), or a "manual" payment which is cash or a cheque paid in at a branch (your branch or a different one).

For electronic payments, they should speak to their inward payments department who will have all the electronic data at their fingertips (on-line as it's so recent), which will show which bank/on-lin customer sent it.

If it is a cheque or cash payment paid in at another branch, your branch can trace it via their credit clearing report from their cheque processing dept - again a unique ref number will lead back to the branch that took the payment in, and they will have a copy of the paying in slip.

(PS I'm a retired manager from Nat West payment services, but my knowledge is about 5 years out of date. However the principals of "traceability" remain the same).

claireyrosey

I used to work at Barclays a few years ago - looking after accounts like these (b4 barclays decided to save money and send my job to liverpool or india or somewhere)

The heading "Advice" would normally mean that this is an entry a member of staff has manually passed.
The member of staff you are speaking to should be able to get a copy of these entries, which will give the staff members name and contact details who did this.

That member of staff could then provide them with the sort code and account number the funds were received from (and therefor where the funds were then returned too)

At the very best Barclays are only going to be able to provide you with the sort code and account number of where the payments came from. They won't know any more than that. You could then try to write to the bank the sort code relates to asking them to forward the letter to the account holder asking them to contact you.

If they can't find trace this member of staff (highly unlikely) They need to order a copy of the "CDI list" (or get someone at they service centre to look up on they copy of the CDI list) for the date the credits were received into the account. These might be computrised now, but in my day these where paper only, so might take a few days.

I hope that makes sense, and helps.