Faster Payment Bank transfer - still waiting

Geranium44

Daliah said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Notepad_Phil said:

Geranium44 said:

Hi Daliah by checking ten times, I was referring to checking the sort code and account number the trader had provided. Didn’t know Confirmation of Payee checks existed. There’s certainly no reference to that on the online Santander website. 

Surely you went through the Confirmation of Payee checks when you set this payee up? Santander always does for me.

As well as the sort code and account number it asks whether you are paying to a company or individual and who that is. It then comes back and says that everything matches or that something doesn't match or that they can't do the check and if it doesn't match or they can't check then it asks are you sure that you really wish to make that payment as there could be issues with who you are sending it to.

Agree, I don't know how you can set up a new payee without having to do this.

I agree, there is no way you can set up a new payee in Santander without going through the checks. Though you can ignore the result of the checks if you wish, by confirming that you know that "continuing with this payment may lead to the funds being sent to the wrong account"

@Geranium44, what was the result you got from Santander's checking of the payee? Also, did you call them this morning, and is the issue now resolved?

I’ve tried in at least 5 occasions since yesterday to call Santander security and have yet to get through. I was not asked to enter the Santander checking of the payee and not heard anything although as Ballard and others say, this payment may only be released after the next working day. In summary, there’s been no resolution, my account still shows the amount debited and the recipient yet to receive the funds. 

eskbanker

Geranium44 said:
I was not asked to enter the Santander checking of the payee

It's not some sort of optional extra process, it's an intrinsic part of setting up a new payee - you enter the payee's name (and whether they're a business or an individual), plus the sort code and account number, and you receive some sort of feedback from the validation, such as a green tick, before choosing whether or not to proceed, with one or two other hoops to jump through, such as declaring a reason for the payment....

Geranium44

eskbanker said:

Geranium44 said:
I was not asked to enter the Santander checking of the payee

It's not some sort of optional extra process, it's an intrinsic part of setting up a new payee - you enter the payee's name (and whether they're a business or an individual), plus the sort code and account number, and you receive some sort of feedback from the validation, such as a green tick, before choosing whether or not to proceed, with one or two other hoops to jump through, such as declaring a reason for the payment....

Interesting. The reason we’re having this discussion is the lack of validation or any notification of a ‘hang on, let’s look closer at this’. I was asked simply to confirm authorise payment via the Santander app. 

eskbanker

Geranium44 said:

eskbanker said:

Geranium44 said:
I was not asked to enter the Santander checking of the payee

It's not some sort of optional extra process, it's an intrinsic part of setting up a new payee - you enter the payee's name (and whether they're a business or an individual), plus the sort code and account number, and you receive some sort of feedback from the validation, such as a green tick, before choosing whether or not to proceed, with one or two other hoops to jump through, such as declaring a reason for the payment....

Interesting. The reason we’re having this discussion is the lack of validation or any notification of a ‘hang on, let’s look closer at this’. I was asked simply to confirm authorise payment via the Santander app. 

Perhaps there's some confusion here between three different processes?

Confirmation of Payee is a mandatory process within the setting up of a new payee within online banking or the app, which is essentially validating that the payee name you enter corresponds to the name associated with the destination account.  If there isn't a match, you see an error message, as per the Santander guidance linked earlier.

Being asked to authorise payment via the app is Two Factor Authentication, i.e. validating that it's the account holder initiating the instruction.

However, separately, and unrelated to both of the above, banks can and do subsequently hold payments that their automated algorithms deem suspicious, in terms of activity patterns on the sender or destination accounts.  In some cases they'll simply release such payments without further input from the sender, but in other cases they'll get back to you to ask you to provide additional information.

Daliah

Geranium44 said:

eskbanker said:

Geranium44 said:
I was not asked to enter the Santander checking of the payee

It's not some sort of optional extra process, it's an intrinsic part of setting up a new payee - you enter the payee's name (and whether they're a business or an individual), plus the sort code and account number, and you receive some sort of feedback from the validation, such as a green tick, before choosing whether or not to proceed, with one or two other hoops to jump through, such as declaring a reason for the payment....

Interesting. The reason we’re having this discussion is the lack of validation or any notification of a ‘hang on, let’s look closer at this’. I was asked simply to confirm authorise payment via the Santander app. 

This can only happen if you had already set up the payee. At Santander, all new payees go through the confirmation of payee check. This is not optional, you cannot avoid it.

Geranium44 said:

I’ve tried in at least 5 occasions since yesterday to call Santander security and have yet to get through. 

That's very odd, as I got through after a couple of minutes wait time this lunchtime, on the number I posted earlier. They'll be open again tomorrow 08:00 to 18:00.

Geranium44 said:

eskbanker said:

Geranium44 said:
I was not asked to enter the Santander checking of the payee

It's not some sort of optional extra process, it's an intrinsic part of setting up a new payee - you enter the payee's name (and whether they're a business or an individual), plus the sort code and account number, and you receive some sort of feedback from the validation, such as a green tick, before choosing whether or not to proceed, with one or two other hoops to jump through, such as declaring a reason for the payment....

Interesting. The reason we’re having this discussion is the lack of validation or any notification of a ‘hang on, let’s look closer at this’. I was asked simply to confirm authorise payment via the Santander app. 

You don't get "‘hang on, let’s look closer at this’" when adding a new payee but the standard checks which were described earlier will be carried out. After verification of the payee details, your payment may or may not be held up for additional fraud checks. You will not be notified if the payment gets held up. They may release the payment after checking, or call you about it, or refuse the payment, and  even block your account if the payment is considered particularly dodgy. You can usually speed up the release of a payment by calling them.

If you make a payment to an existing payee, the payee's details will not be checked again, but your payment may be held up for fraud checks, as for payments to new payees.

Geranium44

Thanks Daliah. What you’ve described is reassuring if that’s what I can expect with Santander validating the transaction and holding the funds until it’s done so. Yes I’ve never experienced such difficulty with speaking to Santander. I even tried the Santander Security number shared above but same result. 

I’ll try again tomorrow. 

phillw

Geranium44 said:

Thanks Daliah. What you’ve described is reassuring if that’s what I can expect with Santander validating the transaction and holding the funds until it’s done so. Yes I’ve never experienced such difficulty with speaking to Santander. I even tried the Santander Security number shared above but same result. 

I’ll try again tomorrow. 

One of the things they try to do is slow down your ability to solve these kind of issues, because if someone stole your phone they would have a small window until you reported it missing.

So the transaction will leave your account and not arrive, they will tell you that maybe the receiving bank doesn't support faster payments or that faster payments can take up to 48 hours. It's all a delaying tactic.

There was a suggesting that the faster payments deadline should be reduced, their objection was that they wouldn't be able to slow down transactions to prevent fraud.

I had one case where they blamed the other bank, so I contacted them (I was sending it to my own account at another bank) and they said that what I had been told made no sense. So I phoned the sending bank back to complain and they put me on hold permanently, it was only the third call that they would actually tell me the truth.

In my experience you should just phone up the main customer service line and say you want to make a complaint.

Thrugelmir

Weekends aren't banking days. Could be internal system admin. Bank holidays provide an additional window to get a lot done. 

Daliah

Thrugelmir said:

Weekends aren't banking days. Could be internal system admin. Bank holidays provide an additional window to get a lot done. 

The Santander fraud department, which deals with additional checks, is open every day, though only for ten hours on non-working days.

MrFrugalFever

I am suspect that your payment will clear tomorrow (official business banking day), although admittedly it is unusual for an FP to not go through almost instantly, even on a weekend. My 2 NatWest standing orders were due to be paid today, they’ve been paid according to the dates of my S/O’s but the money hasn’t been sent or received (transfers within my own accounts) as they won’t actually be processed until tomorrow 2am.

Each banks clearing process is likely to be marginally different. If the money is not in the recipients account by Wednesday morning then I would certainly be on the phone to your bank.