Card payment stuck between 2 banks

sar8546

Please can anyone help me, my two banks are driving me crazy over something that surely shouldn't be this difficult. I've tried to make a card payment, from one bank to another, but the money is stuck somewhere in the middle and both banks are saying it's the others' responsibility.

I made a debit card payment to Santander over the phone. I was told immediately it had been declined. They asked me if i definitely had the funds, which I did so they tried again. It was declined again. They thought perhaps my post code registered with the card was incorrect and advised me to call my bank, First Direct.
First direct advised my post code was correct and that the first card payment attempt hadn't been declined, but as it was a large sum it had gone for authorisation, it had been authorised after a few minutes. The second attempt had been declined as i didn't have enough money in my account to cover two payments.
I called Santander back to explain the first payment had been authorised and was told it was probably in a holding account and to wait a day or two for it to clear.
3 days later the money still hasn't cleared. First Direct have told me that because the payment has been authorised they are unable to cancel it (something to do with protecting retailers means they're not allowed to cancel an authorised card payment). They said it is now down to Santander to either accept or reject the payment. If they simply do nothing it will drop off my account after 10 working days.
I called Santander who said they cannot accept or reject the payment because as far as they are concerned it was declined. They state it is down to First Direct to cancel the payment as they are the ones that still have my money. First Direct told me to explain to Santander that the money should be in their authorisation centre and gave me a system reference number which would enable them to find the payment. When i explained this to Santander they said their systems and processes are different to First Direct's so they couldn't act on that information and maintained there was no way of them accessing the payment.

I can't wait ten working days for this payment to drop off because there is a deadline on the payment i'm trying to make. Can anyone tell me which bank is correct and any information to back it up? Then i can battle it out with whichever one actually has the power to cancel (or accept) the payment. I don't feel i can argue my point anymore because i really don't know who is telling the truth!

xylophone

I can well imagine that you are very annoyed and frustrated - anybody would be in this situation, the very epitome of banging your head against a brick wall.

I take it that a large sum of money has actually gone from your FD account?

If so, it must be somewhere.

My inclination would be to telephone FD again and ask to speak to a manager ( if only on the basis that the situation arose because of a delay (quirk)? in their system) and explain that the payment is subject to a deadline because......(the reason).

I am assuming that FD have some kind of technical support team.

It seems to me that a member of that team should be liaising with the Santander opposite number to clarify what exactly has happened?

sar8546

Thanks for your reply. Yes definitely feel like i'm banging my head against a wall! The money has left my account.

First Direct did put me through to a manager and she was the one who explained they're not allowed to cancel authorised payments and it's a rule to protect retailers. I asked to speak to someone else at Santander but the adviser said she'd already spoken to her manager on my behalf (i had been on hold a long time). I did suggest to Santander that they should communicate with FD about this to which I was told there really wasn't anything they could do as they don't hold my money. Perhaps it would be an idea to ask FD to communicate directly with Santander though, worth a try anyway!

xylophone

There is a deadline - you have tried to meet that deadline and have used the channels provided by your bank(s).

If the deadline is not met, then this is not your fault - it is the fault of one or other of the banks providing the service, perhaps both - their refusal to assist you in resolving the situation ( very poor standards of customer service) seems to me quite unacceptable.

In the first instance, I'd make a formal request for FD to liaise with Santander, initially by phone and followed up with a secure message. I would ask to be advised as soon as possible (and certainly within the deadline) on progress made.

If it all goes wrong, and you actually lose in terms of time, cash/credit record etc, I'd make a formal written complaint to each party, (copied to the other) and if the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, take the grievance to the Banking Ombudsman.

System

Has it actually debited your account or simply reduced your available balance?

In future, pay by Faster Payment as it doesn't have these issues.