Correct IBAN, wrong name

KleeNo

Just need a bit of help on this.

I'm expecting some money (about £4,000) to come from Slovenia (it's a bitcoin withdrawal) to be deposited into my barclays uk account, the only problem is the IBAN/SWIFT is correct, but I left my brother's (who has the same last name) name in the Beneficiary's Name field, and I'm worried the money will be rejected and just disappear in the ether.

I've contacted Barclays earlier this morning and got through to the crap call centre, the guy had no opinion whatsoever on the situation (I don't think he understood), but said I'd need to call Barclays International Banking at 0845 716 5921 (doesn't open until 9am).

I'm going to call Barclays again later today when I can hopefully speak to somebody within the country and not somebody where neither of us can barely understand each other.

It's been 19 hours since the withdrawal was finalized, and the expected deposit time is 2-3 days.

I've just submitted a request for another withdrawal, but this time using all the correct details, so I guess if there is a problem, I'll see this deposit but not first one.

Does anyone have an advice/insight on this?

[Deleted User]

Depends entirely on your bank, some will allow transactions with similar names, some will require identical names. Your only option is to wait until the morning and check with Barclays. Although your money would never disappear, it would be rejected and sent back to Bitstamp as your IBAN is correct. They're a responsible and reliable company so you shouldn't need to fear your money disappearing, although you may experience a delay...

KleeNo

Well I do have a lot of transactions coming in on a daily basis usually, and a lot of the time people are sending money using only my initials, or something completely unrelated (like company name), this is from both UK and EU accounts.

I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to the banking process, but is there is a chance I can call Barclays and aware them that I'm expecting a payment, explain the situation, and when they come to verify the transaction/deposit the money into my account, they'll already be up to date on what's happened?

JuicyJesus

You could leave it on notice with Barclays, but their payment processing side of things is going to be very low level and if they see a difference between the account name and the incoming SWIFT then they will likely either return it or contact the sending bank to clarify the correct beneficiary name. My money would be on the former.

What COULD be done is if the sender contacts their bank, who should be able to send a SWIFT to the receiving bank which corrects the previous one.

System

If it's a SEPA transfer (which it sounds like it is ) it's unlikely that anyone will actively see the name as it's an electronic payment with little human intervention.

Give it until the end of the timeframe as the front line call centre staff won't know either way unless there are notes on your account.

mgdavid

I would not expect any problem with this electronic transfer;

KleeNo

It came through earlier this morning. Cheers guys.

robatwork

This isn't necessarily good news. What it shows is that just like Faster Payments, only the number matters. There is no checking at all evidently. Lots of opportunity for mistakes and typos.

mgdavid

robatwork wrote: »

This isn't necessarily good news. What it shows is that just like Faster Payments, only the number matters. There is no checking at all evidently. Lots of opportunity for customers to make daft mistakes and typos.

fixed that for you ;-)
there always was, there always will be. I don't understand why people think it's the bank's responsibility to check / find / repair the customer's cockups.

heloid

mgdavid wrote: »

fixed that for you ;-)
there always was, there always will be. I don't understand why people think it's the bank's responsibility to check / find / repair the customer's cockups.

Goes both ways in the customers situation in terms of preventing mistakes and holding back timely transactions.
Under the current framework banks don't check more than a checksum of the numbers but there is absolutely no reason why banks can't sell it as a value added/verified service. Hopefully some day we'll see one time account number or bank acct identifiers which are more than just a random set of numbers.

Hominu

heloid wrote: »

Under the current framework banks don't check more than a checksum of the numbers but there is absolutely no reason why banks can't sell it as a value added/verified service.

Both banks would have to participate in that case as currently the name isn't even sent as part of the transaction.

Maybe banks could add another 2 or 3 digits to the account number (or a "Check" field) so that the sending bank could confirm that the customer hasn't made a typo, but then people would probably argue that they shouldn't have to enter so many digits to make a payment.

Or they could ask the customer to enter the sort code and account number twice (on different screens).

But I doubt they will.