Santander - Best bank in the world 2012???

moatmeister

Its a big claim isnt it?

Made a faster payment of £800that left my account straight away to another of my accounts early yesterday morning. Its a regular sort of transaction.

By tea time it had still not appeared in the receiving bank. Rang Santander to be told pretty much straightaway by recorded message that they had been voted the "best bank in the world 2012"

An hour later of hanging on the phone listening to their recorded music and being reminded that they were the "best bank in the world 2012" I got cut off. Tried again and twenty minutes later got through to someone. Explained the situation, transferred again to avery helpful man in the internet banking centre in Ireland. He said that the payment had been identified as potentially fraudulent and was being investigated.

Now thats sort of ok but this is the 4th time this has happened to me this year. He got the payment released and told me it would be credited within 18 hours. I asked what I could do to stop this happening in the future. He said there was nothing really, it was an automated thing.

In this instance it actually made no difference, but could have resulted in missed or late payments elsewhere which it did last time it happened. (That time I took complaint to the Financial Ombudsman ad won £250.) He said they would cover any charges incurred because of it, but he was lost when I raised the issue of what would happen if that also resulted in a missed or late payment marker on a credit file.

I was not happy and started making noises about moving accounts. Lodged an official complaint.

A little later someone rung back and offered £30.00 ex gratia payment.

molerat

moatmeister wrote: »

.................
In this instance it actually made no difference, but could have resulted in missed or late payments elsewhere which it did last time it happened. (That time I took complaint to the Financial Ombudsman ad won £250.) He said they would cover any charges incurred because of it, but he was lost when I raised the issue of what would happen if that also resulted in a missed or late payment marker on a credit file.

FP timescale is by end of next working day so what have they done that could cause a late payment marker, leaving a payment that late is down to you.

moatmeister

If you read my post properly you would see it was a hypothetical question.

Whats the point of saying it takes 2 hours if it takes two days?

We all need to work to a common standard, not make up the rules as we go along. May as well allow 3 working days for everything, in which case what is the use of faster payments if you cant rely on them??

I always thought that cheque clearance time was 3 working days. Paid one into Santander last week, lady on the counter told me it could take 10 working days to clear.

Well miffed today, they have frozen another internet transfer this morning, will be released in 16 hours.

Getting a bit fed up of propping up the spanish economy. Bye bye Santander from me ASAP

callum9999

moatmeister wrote: »

If you read my post properly you would see it was a hypothetical question.

Whats the point of saying it takes 2 hours if it takes two days?

We all need to work to a common standard, not make up the rules as we go along. May as well allow 3 working days for everything, in which case what is the use of faster payments if you cant rely on them??

I always thought that cheque clearance time was 3 working days. Paid one into Santander last week, lady on the counter told me it could take 10 working days to clear.

Well miffed today, they have frozen another internet transfer this morning, will be released in 16 hours.

Getting a bit fed up of propping up the spanish economy. Bye bye Santander from me ASAP

They don't, they say it "usually" takes less than 2 hours - which is does, even for Santander (all my FPs take a few seconds). Though if your payments keep getting held up for fraud checks then it would make sense to go elsewhere.

You aren't remotely propping up the Spanish economy... I assume Santander UK make some royalty payments to Grupo Santander, but Santander UK is an independent entity, and you personally make zero difference to the Spanish economy.

moatmeister

Good!

They can take their paella and sangria and stuff it where the sun dont shine as far as i am concerned.

ps still no money, that means my credit card not paid off and no wages paid to the troops.

MoneySaverLog

I read the title of this thread and

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

moatmeister

According to the recorded message on their phone line (which doesnt appear to be there today)

and this...........

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/santander-awarded-worlds-best-bank-in-2012-by-euromoney-magazine-162234625.html

Gentoo365

The requirement (and hence the expectation) is next working day. Except for some banks that have a limit for same day (e.g. < £500 or < £10,000 same day).

The thing is that it can be done in 2 hours or less, and the vast, vast majority of transactions and fully automated and need no human involvement once you request them. The transaction just sits in the queue waiting for the next hourly payment run.

The thing is that so many transactions are quick that peoples expectations are changing. Even if a staff member said "This may take 24 hours" after a while people will just ignore it and just thing "They always say that"

Another option that a bank could do is hold ALL transactions till the next day. That way it would not only hide which ones were flagged as potential fraud, but it would also set expectations a bit better.

.......but that would be rubbish. So personally I think that the current version is better. Most payments 2 hours, some next day.

Note that if you NEED the money to get there the same day then you can ring in to make the transaction and specifically state that it must be a same day transfer. Then if there are any security concerns they can ask a few security questions. It can also help if you need to complain later.

Note that a few days late will not affect your credit file, and with most decent companies any charge for late payments by 1-2 days can be refunded by making a phone call.

Gentoo365

oh, and another thing.

Those 'Best account'. 'Best current account provider' awards are usually from trade magazines and it seems that everyone gets an award if they pay for the related dinner. I doubt you could find any bank that was not 'award winning' in some way.

agrinnall

Gentoo365 wrote: »

The thing is that it can be done in 2 hours or less, and the vast, vast majority of transactions and fully automated and need no human involvement once you request them. The transaction just sits in the queue waiting for the next hourly payment run.

Most full members of Faster Payments will not have any such thing as an 'hourly payment run', payments are processed and sent to the Central Infrastructure within a few seconds of the customer requesting them. More than 99% of single payments are processed (either successful or failed, although the vast majority will be successful) this way. A few are delayed for up to 2 hours, often because they've been intercepted by fraud processing software and need to be manually checked, and an even smaller number will be delayed further, as much as the next day.

Financial Institutions that aren't full members do not have the same single payment processing so all payments are delayed, in many cases being sent overnight for the recieving institution to apply the next day.

Santander should be in the full member group, any failure to process payments within a few seconds will be down to their own internal systems - there's really no excuse for them not to be able to do it outside of system failures, and if they don't then that's another reason for no9t banking with them.

Gentoo365

But you have to consider the receiving bank too in the 2 hours. It will only be really quick if both banks are members (which yes, it is likely that they will be for current accounts). Which is why I said 2 hours 'or less'. As you say if it is two member banks then it is actually surprisingly quick sometimes.

The 'next business day' rule is the regulatory maximum. As defined in the Payment Services Regulations - Best Practice

http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/files/payments_council/guidance_document_2011_v2.pdf

‘D+1’ describes the execution timescale set out in Regulation 70, that the payer’s PSP must ensure that the amount of the payment transaction is credited to the payee’s PSP’s account by the end of the business day following the day of receipt of the payment order. Regulation 73 then follows that the amount of the payment transaction is at the payee’s disposal immediately after it has been credited to the account of the payee’s PSP. The credit value date for the payee’s payment account must be no later than the business day on which the payment is credited to the payee’s PSP’s account.

Banks will not really want to promise more than they can deliver if at all possible.

So I would always ring them when making a transaction that MUST be the same day, and get them to confirm that my payment will be sent that day.

Anyway, I am rambling on now. My point is that I don't think that someone can complain that a payment was not made the same day if that is not the promised time-scale. Even if it is the 'usual' or 'possible' timescale. As the bank can just refer them to the terms and conditions.