Santander holding my payment and blocked my account

lipo811

Hi all

I made a payment of £20k from my Satander account on Friday morning to repay my personal loan (with HSBC) that I took out to help out a friend. As the payment was not arrived at my HSBC account, After spending 51 mins on the phone, they told me that they cannot release the payment and cannot give me a reason but someone will contact me within 48 hours. I was so stressed and made a complaint, someone from the complaint department told me that I need to provide information/documents on where the money came from.........

As I explained to them that I borrowed it from HSBC as a loan and transferred to my Santander account then transferred to my friend's account last month, so he was paying back the money that I lend him. Those transaction can be seen on my Santander account. However they are still not satisfied with my respond and asking for documents to proof and bank statements from my friend. I had taken time off from work and get bank statement from my friend to hand it in a Santander branch along with my loan agreement. After I did everything they asked, they told me they cannot give me a time scale when/if my money can be release!!!!!!! I am paying £367 interest per month (which is calculated daily) on the loan.

Anyone have any good advises or suggestions on how to have my money released asap??

Please help!! Thank you

grumbler

Relax and send them or hand over a letter saying that you hold them responsible for any interest you incur after the Friday.

lipo811

Thanks grumbler. I did say that to them and also logged a complaint. They said they can only look into it once that are satisfied with everything. so annoying!!

agrinnall

It's annoying but Santander will only be fulfilling their AML duties - some may say these are too onerous, and that some banks go to far in their interpretation of what they are required to do, but when the alternative for them is massive fines for non-compliance you can see their point.

The lesson for you to take away is not to lend more than you can afford to be without to friends - I'm sure most people would regard taking out a £20K loan as going well beyond the demands of friendship (unless of course you're making a big profit on the deal, although even then it's a risky pursuit).

[Deleted User]

Faster Payments can take until the end of the next working day according to the Santander website. I made a couple of payments of between £10-15k from my Santander account on Friday and they didn't reach the recipients until Saturday mid-morning. I didn't contact Santander and they didn't contact me for any checks. Maybe if you had waited longer the payment would have gone through. Good luck.

robatwork

Follow this procedure asap and get your complaint registered with the ombudsman. At least you should then eventually get some compensation for the interest or fees:
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/letter-of-deadlock-request-before-going-to-the-ombudsman

eskbanker

lipo811 wrote: »

Santander holding my payment and blocked my account

As per previous posts they're not obliged to release the payment instantaneously, but if they've actually blocked your account, as in preventing you from using it, that seems over the top and definitely worthy of a complaint.

grumbler

eskbanker wrote: »

....if they've actually blocked your account, as in preventing you from using it, that seems over the top and definitely worthy of a complaint.

This is a typical AML procedure and, to be fair, £20K coming into an account and then instantly out does smell like laundering money stolen from some hacked account.

That said, any loss resulting from this blocking has to be reimbursed and a complaint is due if they typically drag their feet with investigation and unblocking, especially after the proofs they asked for were provided.

Archi_Bald

lipo811 wrote: »

I made a payment of £20k from my Satander account on Friday morning to repay my personal loan (with HSBC) that I took out to help out a friend.

How much do you know about your friend's financial affairs, how well do you know your friend? If there have been transactions on their account which have raised questions, this could have reflected badly on you.