Max amount to transfer- Santander

learningaboutmoney3

Just attempted to transfer our 20% deposit and fees to solicitor via online banking. Declined because it is over the maximum amount. Any idea what that max is?

Will ring/ nip into the back tomorrow to get things transfered that way, but just wondered!

bouicca21

Any unusually large transaction kicks off a fraud suspicion which means that the max (theoretically £100,000 with Santander) is actually flexible. I had this problem with Halifax and Santander when trying to transfer funds to my solicitor for completion. The only reliable way of transferring large sums (unless you are in the habit of doing so in which case they don't bat an eye) is to go into branch with ID and do it there.

You may find your account has been temporarily suspended. I suggest a formal complaint, plus a willingness to make many phone calls and jump hoops will be necessary to get it sorted. I'd be asking for compensation too, since you have presumably been seriously disadvantaged by believing their own web site advice - not just in money but also in reputation.

mustang1

Theoretically it's £100k but I've never made a faster payment for that amount. Max I've ever transferred is £15k which took about 12 hours to get to the recipient (not quite a "faster payment").

As you say, best bet is to go into the branch tomorrow but just bear in mind that it may not get to the solicitor tomorrow if you were hoping it would....

Pricivius

It was £20k per day when I had to transfer my deposit from Santander earlier this year. That's without having to pay fees. MSE kicked in and I made sure I had enough time to transfer the deposit in three chunks over three days to avoid a fee!

Better_Days

When I transferred funds for purchasing this house I had to go through extra security checks with First Direct, but I was able to do it all over the phone. I did ring them up and discuss what I wanted to do.

davidmcn

Santander's daily Faster Payment limit is £100k, though if you're going up that high it needs to be done over the phone (not sure what the max online limit is). If you want to transfer more in one day then it needs to be a CHAPS transfer (with a fee).

sydenhambased

I tried to transfer £26,000 to our solicitor last week through Santander online banking. It prompted me to call them, and the whole process then took about 10 minutes. They had to ring me back on the number they had on file for me, but it was a nice easy process.

They said the limit for online actually changes daily based on your profile as a customer, but the maximum they can transfer daily is £100,000 per account.

AlexMac

Lucky you if your Solicitor accepts 'faster payments' (what my two banks call the usual online banking transfer). My last conveyancer insisted on an old fashioned and slightly slower 'CHAPS' payment which comes with a fee. No big deal; Nationwide let me do it online for a fiver or so less than in branch; about £20 fee (and I think NatWest do the same). My banks also have a dialy limit (I think £20k?) for online 'faster payments', but my solicitor insisted on CHAPS even for smaller sums; something to do with their ability to identify cash coming into their accounts!

Wirenth

When I was purchasing my house, I had to pay the solicitor over £50K. I tried using the faster payments system, but Santander paused the online transaction and asked me to phone them. One phone call later, all sorted, payment authorized.

Snakey

I was transferring money from Barclays above those limits before completion and had to go to the branch to make a BACS transfer or whatever it's called. They could have charged me for it but did not, which I thought was really nice of them (and almost made up for the mix-up with the bank charges back in 2002 which I am still annoyed about whenever I think back to it).

They also asked a million questions to make sure I wasn't handing it over to some scammer. I wasn't sure whether to be pleased that they were looking out for me, or insulted that I clearly look the type that would fall for something like that.

The deposit I paid from my First Direct account and to get it free I transferred it at £10k per day so it took five days altogether. My solicitor was delighted, as you can imagine.

I found the whole thing quite frustrating. I don't understand why they have an arbitary limit at all. Either you are who you say you are, or you are not, and if they are worried that their security checks aren't good enough to establish that then they shouldn't pay you one single penny.