Santander: infuriating experience with international payments

chamelion

Hi all,

Some advice please - I've tried to send a good sum of money internationally using Santander. The money disappeared from my account and after nearly a month and 20 conversations with them they're telling me that the account number was wrong and they keep trying to call me and leave messages (untrue - not a single call nor message).

The money was just now returned to the account minus £700. After a month of this painful issue this now crops up. Apparently their international payment back office team only works Mon-Fri, but hoping for your advice - is this something I need to just keep complaining about as I have been doing for a month or raise a case with the financial ombudsman?

I want all my money back, including the £25 payment fee which I should not have to pay for their incompetence.

xylophone

Was the account number wrong?

What does the £700 represent? (Transaction fee/exchange costs...)

chamelion

xylophone wrote: »

Was the account number wrong?

What does the £700 represent? (Transaction fee/exchange costs...)

Account number given to santander included a preamble sort code equivalent. receiving bank apparently couldn't work out the fact that their own 'sort' code was in the account number provided and so rejected the payment after 2 weeks (no reason why it took 2 weeks...)

£700 makes no sense - amount sent was in £, amount returned was £. No way has the currency exchange changed so much - and transaction fee was a separate £25.

grumbler

Before going to FOS you have to exhaust the internal complaints procedure with Santander.

Was it your own idea to add 'a preambule' to the account number? If so, it's hardly a surprise that the transfer was bounced. In this case I don't think that £25 fee has to be refunded, but this doesn't apply to the missing £700.

xylophone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sort_code

Did you check how to identify your payment before you sent it?

If not, then you may be held responsible for the error?

That is a separate matter from the missing £700 which will need investigation by Santander/the receiving bank.

Goldiegirl

If it's a large sum of money, the £700 could be differences in the exchange rates, i.e. the rate now is less favourable than when you tried to send it

Ballard

If Santander acted upon your instructions correctly but there was an error in the account number then they can't be held responsible for all of the delay incurred. From what you've said, though, they should have made more of an effort to get in touch with you sooner.


My guess, and it is just that, is that they sent the sterling to the beneficiary bank who then converted it into local currency. It then sat in a suspense account there for weeks until someone bothered to check it, found that they couldn't apply it and converted it back to sterling and returned it. They will probably have taken a fee for this.


Regardless of the exchange rate movement, or not, the FX spread would easily make a few hundred pounds if it's a fairly large sum.


I don't know all of the facts but I don't see that Santander have been incompetent from what you've written. Presuming that you made an error with the account number then I don't see that you've got much of a leg to stand on. They may refund the £25 to compensate for any delay that's down to them though.

mgdavid

How did you initiate this transaction, in branch or by phone or what?
Did the bank ask for, and did you provide , the BIC code and IBAN number of the payee's bank account?
What receipt did you get for the transaction, do you still have a paper copy?

jonesMUFCforever

Basically if you gave the wrong information then it is your loss - however if you gave the right information and they entered it incorrectly then you have a case to claim some money back.

How much was the transfer for?
You say the transfer was for £ but was it really? Are you sure it was not £ equivalent of a currency??
The difference between the selling and buy back rate is the only way I can see a loss of £700 on the transaction.

chamelion

Ballard wrote: »

If Santander acted upon your instructions correctly but there was an error in the account number then they can't be held responsible for all of the delay incurred. From what you've said, though, they should have made more of an effort to get in touch with you sooner.


My guess, and it is just that, is that they sent the sterling to the beneficiary bank who then converted it into local currency. It then sat in a suspense account there for weeks until someone bothered to check it, found that they couldn't apply it and converted it back to sterling and returned it. They will probably have taken a fee for this.


Regardless of the exchange rate movement, or not, the FX spread would easily make a few hundred pounds if it's a fairly large sum.


I don't know all of the facts but I don't see that Santander have been incompetent from what you've written. Presuming that you made an error with the account number then I don't see that you've got much of a leg to stand on. They may refund the £25 to compensate for any delay that's down to them though.

That's the thing - they never attempted to get in touch - I had to call them up practically daily to check status of payment. they said they can't check because it was already sent, and confirmed + reconfirmed the account numbers. when I asked to initiate a trace they said they would, and it was only then that they found money in limbo and checked the account number and communicated it to the receiving bank - who took another week and multiple calls to reject it.

note: the receiving bank HAS received funds via HSBC to the identical account number - with the preamble.

mgdavid wrote: »

How did you initiate this transaction, in branch or by phone or what?
Did the bank ask for, and did you provide , the BIC code and IBAN number of the payee's bank account?
What receipt did you get for the transaction, do you still have a paper copy?

Initiated online. BIC and IBAN numbers provided. Requesting paper copy from santander of the transaction now to log complaint with ombudsman as this is now a deadlock and complaints procedure hasn't yielded anything.

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Basically if you gave the wrong information then it is your loss - however if you gave the right information and they entered it incorrectly then you have a case to claim some money back.

How much was the transfer for?
You say the transfer was for £ but was it really? Are you sure it was not £ equivalent of a currency??
The difference between the selling and buy back rate is the only way I can see a loss of £700 on the transaction.

£25k transfer. I now contest the 'wrong information' charge as I looked up historical transfers via HSBC and with the full preamble the money was sent and received in days without a single complaint.

It was in £ for sure, no conversion.

mgdavid

Gosh it does sound pretty inefficient of the bank; do come back and let us know how you get on - it may well help somebody else in the same predicament later on.

BTW (as no-one else has mentioned it yet) - if you do a similar transaction in the future, it's far easier and cheaper to use a forex company like currencyfair or transferwise. (I use the first one). Transaction fee is £2.50 and far better exchange rate than the banks give.