Santander owes me £20,000

davidmcn

Consider this: Santander have no way of knowing that you don't already have the £20k. Even if you don't now, and they give you £20k, what's going to happen when the other party sends you the original £20k?

[Deleted User]

 Don't understand why you are mad at the bank when an individual quite clearly has your money! 

born_again

DeborahHolden said:

They said they would close the case and could put me onto the banking ombudsman. They did not message me to confirm this, there are no details of how to contact the banking ombudsman and I am sitting here jobless due to covid wondering if my 'life-savings' will ever be returned so I can survive. Can anyone help me?

If you raised a complaint and resolved it with the £250. Then you will have received a letter from Santander telling you how to contact the Ombudsman, also there details are on the santander site and FOS have a website with all their contact details on. Santander have to log all complaints for FOS, but will not pass your individual complaint on to FOS.
I hope that Cheque does not turn up, as unless you have a Thialand bank account. Foreign cheques take weeks to cash in the UK. That is you can even get to a branch to pay it in.

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm another one who can't see how Santander owes you £20k.  Their advice was incorrect but they didn't force you to raise the money from a third party.  That was your own choice.

photome

who has who has the £20000? is it the freeholder ?

If so,why hasn’t he returned it to you

as others have said the bank doesn’t owe you the money

kazwookie

Buying property in Thailand as a foreigner is very difficult.

IF you are buying a house, then  you also need a business out there, (freehold) as feraing cannot buy a freehold property direct.

IF you are buying a condo, then this is leashold and you pay management charges each months / 6 month.

While this has nothing to do with your £20k, are you sure all is above board and legal? Do you have a relevant visa if your are not a thai national?

Hasbeen

Will the next thread from the op be about I have been ripped off by buying a property in Thailand and its cost me £40000?

SnowTiger

DeborahHolden said:

 They said they would close the case and could put me onto the banking ombudsman. They did not message me to confirm this, there are no details of how to contact the banking ombudsman and I am sitting here jobless due to covid wondering if my 'life-savings' will ever be returned so I can survive. Can anyone help me?

You attempted to send £20,000 to a Thailand bank account from your Santander account while you were in Thailand.  Unsurprisingly your bank account was locked.  You contacted Santander who tried to push the transfer through a second time, but it failed.

You told Santander to cancel the transfer(s).  Oddly Santander didn't mention that one of them had been successful.  You also told them you would arrange to transfer the money using an alternative method.

When your account was unlocked and you had access to it it became apparent that the first (or perhaps second) £20,000 transfer did go through.

You (and Santander) have attempted to retrieve the £20,000 sent to Thailand without success.

Santander has admitted some wrongdoing and offered you £250 compensation.

In the first instance you should try to get the money back from whoever has it now.

Santander should write you to, explain their decision and give you details about how to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.  I suspect the FOS will be very busy during the next few months dealing with complaints from folk who think they've been treated badly during the COVID-19 palava.

I think the crux of your argument is that Santander told you, or led you to believe, the £20,000 transfer(s) didn't go through, so you made the transfer using an alternative method.  At the time you were entirely reliant on Santander for details about the status of the transaction(s) and your account because your access to it had been blocked.  Santander gave you duff advice, that being the transfer(s) hadn't gone through.  If Santader hadn't told you that you wouldn't have transferred £20,000 to Thailand using an alternative method.

DeborahHolden

kazwookie said:

Buying property in Thailand as a foreigner is very difficult.

IF you are buying a house, then  you also need a business out there, (freehold) as feraing cannot buy a freehold property direct.

IF you are buying a condo, then this is leashold and you pay management charges each months / 6 month.

While this has nothing to do with your £20k, are you sure all is above board and legal? Do you have a relevant visa if your are not a thai national?

Yes, all good, I've been on and off in Thailand for 20 years!

Jumblebumble

DeborahHolden said:

I recently decided to buy the property I was renting in Thailand. I rang Santander two weeks before I needed to transfer the total amount and was informed that I could ring them to make the transfer then would save money as I wouldn't have to pay for 3 transfer fees to get the full amount over. I rang back 2 weeks later to be told that I didn't have this telephone banking set up (I was not advised this previously). I then decided to transfer online. The first payment I attempted for £20K locked my internet banking. I called back straightway to be informed that this was an automated system locking me due to fraud etc. and that it would be unlocked by 9pm (UK time) that night, which is wasn't. I called the next day to be informed that I would be called later by another team, during this conversation, I was advised that I would need to make the previous payment again. My internet banking was then unlocked. I then attempted to make another payment whilst still on the phone to the advisor at which time my internet banking locked again. During this conversation, I then requested that any payments be cancelled as a family member would make the transfer for me from their UK bank and I could then transfer the money UK - UK. The advisor agreed. I then had my family member transfer the money over. When my internet banking was then unlocked, the first payment for £20,000 had in fact been transferred. I rang again and eventually was put on to an advisor who informed me that their advisor misinformed me. It wasn't until that advisor got off the phone, listened to all of my previous 'recorded' conversations that they took blame, which I then requested in writing. They then attempted to get the Thai bank to reverse the fee to no avail. I then had news that the receiver of the money was leaving Thailand due to the coronavirus so I asked him to transfer the excess £20,000 to the freeholder who I know well. The freeholder then attempted to transfer the money from his Thai account to me to no avail due to Covid. Santander then informed me that it was my error for getting the original receiver of the funds to move the money after they took so long not to get it back for me. I was then requested to get the freeholder to 'send' me a cheque, which I am still waiting for. Santander offered me £250 compensation which I refused (so far all costs have exceeded this amount and who knows what I will lose with the exchange rate) They said they would close the case and could put me onto the banking ombudsman. They did not message me to confirm this, there are no details of how to contact the banking ombudsman and I am sitting here jobless due to covid wondering if my 'life-savings' will ever be returned so I can survive. Can anyone help me?

It seems very strange that Covid is stopping bank transfers from happening.
Why would you ask the receiver to transfer to the freeholder and not ask him to ask his bank to reverse the transaction?
Are you sure this is not a fairy story as it sounds like one to me and I imagine Santander feel the same
I will charitably assume there is no element of attempted money laundering involved here