Santander whinge & clearance times

lowie

I had money paid to my Santander account using my card details and the money arrived yesterday but I can't touch it. The money in was a "credit from" transaction if that make any difference. The credit was over £400 my account at the time was sitting around £10. Now my available balance is £290 with an actual balance of £360. I had a D/D come off today so the £360 is correct of where it should be. It gets odder when I have an overdraft of £150 so my available balance should be £510. Am I missing something? I have no pending transactions either.

I would phone Santander but since I've had issues with them for months now I don't see the point. D/Ds/debit card transactions being rejected as apparently there was no money in my account when there was. Money transfers not going ahead for no apparent reason. They seem to think I'm a little stupid as I struggled to understand why my balance was wrong when a cheque was clearing. In my defense I have MS and sometimes the most basic of things take an age to sink in. I spoke to the same person twice on the second call I don't even think he looked into why I was phoning just told me I was wrong even though I checked 5 times before I called and after and I was right. I used their online message service over 2 months ago to ask them to look into it and never got a reply. Can I be unemployed and change bank?

mgdavid

lowie wrote: »

..... Can I be unemployed and change bank?

Is it your highest priority? If you don't actually need to spend the balance today it will sort itself out in a day or two, you may be worrying needlessly.

lowie

If Santander continue the way they are going I'd rather go back to RBS who I loathed.

Is it down to how the company who sent the money process the transaction? I've had money sent before which was fully available the day it arrived. This is the first time I've ever had to wait for funds to clear when the transaction wasn't a cheque. I'm not very patient and I do need the funds quite urgently.

pheonix254

Let me see if I have this straight, let's start by putting the transactions in chronological order:

• £10 in account, £160 available, £0 clearing, -£0 pending

£400 credit which will not clear immediately by the sounds of it -this will be exactly the same as a cheque (i.e. take a few days to clear) unless it's done from Santander to Santander or via faster payments.

• £10 in account, £160 available, £400 clearing, -£0 pending

I assume you had a £50DD go out - (you didn't say)

• £-40 in account, £110 available, £400 clearing, -£0 pending

after £400 cleared: (where you think it should be)

• £360 in account, £510 available, £0 clearing, -£0 pending

and somehow you've got to

• £360 in account, £290 available, £(0)? clearing which would leave -£220 pending

How much was the DD for?
Are you sure you have the "available" and "actual" account balances the correct way around?
Does a -£220 transaction ring a bell? (assuming your DD was -£50, if it wasn't then the £220 figure will be wrong)





You may need to ring Santander because something here doesn't make sense. Tell them to go through it with you step by step so that you understand it, and that they may need to have patience with you because of your MS. You need to check the following:

1. the £400 has cleared.
2. there are no outstanding transactions coming up that you cannot see
3. ask how it is possible that your actual balance is more than your available balance

And I think you should ring because if what you have told us is correct then there is an issue here which only they can solve.

In terms of being unemployed and changing bank - it's possible so long as your credit history isn't bad. Best thing to do would be to open a new account BEFORE closing the santander one. If that is successful, then use the current account switching service to transfer yourself fully over to the new bank.

If you can't open a new account, however (which may be the case if you have an adverse credit history due to being unemployed), then you'll need to look at a basic bank account which will not have an overdraft.

Archi_Bald

lowie wrote: »

If Santander continue the way they are going I'd rather go back to RBS who I loathed.

lowie wrote: »

Can I be unemployed and change bank?

In addition to what pheonix254 already posted, I would suggest that changing bank might not improve your relationship with a bank and your finances. You need to be sure you understand how they operate so you can organise your spending around your actually available funds.

lowie

My spending is in need of some repair that I do know, I have a budget but cannot stick to it. I am unemployed, currently unable to get out far, refused PIP (different board for this problem) I have issues outside this which, apologies if it's a little blunt, are not the concern of anyone on this forum.

I think I'm confused as my balance shows as £364 yet my available balance, which to me means withdrawable, is £210. My DD was for £50. I'll give it a couple of days before I phone Santander as I really don't want to risk speaking to that guy again. I feel stupid enough at the best of times as it is.

Archi_Bald wrote: »

In addition to what pheonix254 already posted, I would suggest that changing bank might not improve your relationship with a bank and your finances. You need to be sure you understand how they operate so you can organise your spending around your actually available funds.

So it's my fault for not knowing how long a credit takes to go through? My prior experience is that they showed in the account once they had cleared not straight away while my balance shows figures that don't reflect my actual balance in the slightest. I've never had a transaction like this in all the time I've had my account which is around 6 years. Downside of this is I'm due another £200 in a few days and another week of a topsy turvy bank balance. Also as I said I've had various transactions with Santander fail even when I had a sufficient balance to cover it. £11.01 not going through on a balance of over £100 or a £7 debit on a balance of £80. I'm not sticking around if that keeps up.

I do know on most days exactly what my bank balance is. I use YNAB budgeting software so the only reason I overspend is lack of control not from an inability to know on any day without looking at my bank account online what my balance is. Confusion from not knowing why my bank is showing me is completely different.

James_B.

lowie wrote: »

My spending is in need of some repair that I do know, I have a budget but cannot stick to it. I am unemployed, currently unable to get out far, refused PIP (different board for this problem) I have issues outside this which, apologies if it's a little blunt, are not the concern of anyone on this forum.

I'm afraid that it sounds like you maybe want to be careful about going in all guns blazing on this one. You don't sound like someone who the banks will be falling over themselves to do business with, and if you lose this account, may struggle to get another.

Obviously_the_best

It's an incredibly hard one to fathom, and one you probably aren't going to get explained until either it sorts itself out or you contact Santander.

With respect to changing banks while unemployed. You certainly can. You're less likely to get an overdraft however. Just don't mention it to Santander until you've got everything sorted.
Take a look at https://www.comparethemarket.com/current-accounts/

lowie

I have no current plans to change bank as I've also been bankrupt (now discharged) add that to no job I'll probably only get a basic account. I also have savings & an ISA with Santander.

I'm not bothered about losing the overdraft though, I think having it makes me a little complacent about my money enabling me to overspend. Getting rid of it might make me a little more sensible about what and when I spend money.

Vortigern

lowie wrote: »

I'll give it a couple of days before I phone Santander as I really don't want to risk speaking to that guy again. I feel stupid enough at the best of times as it is.

You can avoid speaking to that guy by using Santander's secure messaging system via online banking.

Armorica

If you phone Santander, it’s unlikely you’ll speak to the same person again.

There are two main types of transactions now that are posted to your account ‘for information’ and then for ‘value’. You may see a transaction on your account at the first stage, but the funds won’t be available to you until the second.

With cheques, you can receive the ‘information’ any time from the 1st day to the 3rd day (e.g. it may be earlier than the third day if drawn on the same bank). But funds will not usually be made available until at least the 5th day (with a few exceptions).

The second type is card transactions - particularly if you have a contactless cards. Many card transactions require authorisation from your bank. If authorisation is sought, your bank will know about the transaction and post it to your account, but the debit may not fully hit your account until the next working day. Some transactions don’t require authorisation by your bank (particularly low value/contactless) and so your bank can’t update your account until they receive the information from the merchant. This can vary by merchant - some do not pass over files quickly at all!

If a transaction fails and you don’t understand why, then you should speak to Santander until they can explain the two types of balances to you. But essentially, when you make a payment you should assume it will be taken immediately and ensure you have the funds available - that way you have no bad surprises (but must also keep an eye on any charges or direct debits due)

You may want to consider moving to First Direct (although there may be a monthly fee if you do not pay enough in each month) - they provide a good telephone banking service.