Great service from Santander and Tesco Bank

colsten

I thought I report something positive about banks for a change. Late yesterday afternoon, I transferred a large-ish sum of money from a 123 account to a Tesco savings account. Just seconds after sending the money, I remembered that I had actually closed that savings account a couple of weeks back but not removed it from my 123 payee list - DOH!!

I immediately rang Santander, hoping they had held up this payment for fraud checks, as they sometimes do. No such luck though, the money had been sent. Santander said I need to ring Tesco and - unprompted - gave me the payment reference to help with the tracing.

Tesco Bank couldn't have been more helpful and confirmed within a couple of minutes that they had received the money. They said I could wait for a couple of days for the payment to be returned to my 123, or they could manually credit it to one of my still existing savings accounts. I chose the 2nd option and the money had arrived in the correct account about 15 minutes later. Phew!

It would be really nice if banks rejected payments to non-existent accounts but in the absence of such functionality, I am really pleased with how both, Tesco and Santander were helping me to get out of my self-inflicted predicament.

In case anyone questions the wisdom of transferring money from a 1.5% 123 to a 0.97% Tesco savings account: the 123 is full.

Shakin_Steve

Banks, well done :T

colsten, pillock!

agrinnall

colsten wrote: »

It would be really nice if banks rejected payments to non-existent accounts but in the absence of such functionality...

That functionality does exist if I recall my understanding of FPS correctly, but is dependent on the two banks having a real time conversation so that the receiving bank can tell the sending bank that the specified account does not exist. I don't know anything about Santander or Tesco FPS processing capability but I suspect one or both of them has not implemented that part of the process.

badger09

Shakin_Steve wrote: »

colsten, pillock!

Harsh:cool:

Shakin_Steve

badger09 wrote: »

Harsh:cool:

Not at all. Tough love.:p

where_are_we

I commend Colsten (one of our most knowledgable forumites - shame on you Shakin !) for her post. We can all make mistakes. Having switched to M&S last year, I forgot to set up a standing order for £250 from my external current account to cover the £250 regular payments I had set up into the 5% monthly saver (I only keep about £10 in the account to cover the two monthly direct debits). To my :eek: I received a letter a few days later telling me there were insufficient funds to cover the standing order. I was pleasantly suprised, after phoning M&S up, that they allowed me to backdate the £250 to fill the month`s payment that I had missed. Well done M&S:T.

Shakin_Steve

My post was very tongue in cheek, hence the smiley. Sorry if was mistaken for a dig.

Shakin_Steve

where_are_we wrote: »

I commend Colsten (one of our most knowledgable forumites - shame on you Shakin !) for her post. We can all make mistakes. Having switched to M&S last year, I forgot to set up a standing order for £250 from my external current account to cover the £250 regular payments I had set up into the 5% monthly saver (I only keep about £10 in the account to cover the two monthly direct debits). To my :eek: I received a letter a few days later telling me there were insufficient funds to cover the standing order. I was pleasantly suprised, after phoning M&S up, that they allowed me to backdate the £250 to fill the month`s payment that I had missed. Well done M&S:T.

M&S, well done
Where are we, ..........no, best not.

agrinnall

Shakin_Steve wrote: »

My post was very tongue in cheek, hence the smiley. Sorry if was mistaken for a dig.

Well I took it very much as a jokey comment, I think some people have reacted a bit too seriously. I doubt whether Colsten will be bothered by it.

No_6

If you were using MS money and run it through,
a few days in advance !!!!
and your accounts had been manually updated



this would not have happened.
Glad you didn't loose any dosh.

System

agrinnall wrote: »

That functionality does exist if I recall my understanding of FPS correctly, but is dependent on the two banks having a real time conversation so that the receiving bank can tell the sending bank that the specified account does not exist. I don't know anything about Santander or Tesco FPS processing capability but I suspect one or both of them has not implemented that part of the process.

I would suspect Tesco as it isn't a direct member of the FPS - I'd guess via HSBC as it uses one of it's sort codes.