Santander lost my money

kevoxshockwave

On 29th April, I transferred £550 from my overseas bank account to my UK Santander account, using Wise. The money left my overseas account immediately, went through Wise, and landed in my Santander account in seconds. It was showing on my internet banking as 'IN' in my Santander account. All good. 

I went to spend some money today in a shop and it was declined. "INSUFFICIENT FUNDS". I logged into my Santander account and saw the following
BALANCE = £557.61
BALANCE INCL. PENDING = £7.01
PENDING TRANSACTIONS = -£3.63 (Click here for pending transactions)

Clicked 'there' and there is ONE pending transaction --> -£3.63 for YouTube Premium. Nothing else.

So what has happened to £550 of my money? The transferred money from myself is still showing as IN... not pending, but IN. Wise also sent me an email confirming the transaction was completed. There are ne transanctions pending apart from the -£3.63 to YouTube. So £550 of my own money, that I transfered to myself, has disappeared. I called Santander fraud department and they couldn't shed any light on the matter - the customer service representative said, and I quote,"There seems to be a technical error. I have never seen anything like this before". 

Oh yeah? Well that's just great. £550 of my own money has disappeared, its YOUR fault,and I have 7 quid to live off till payday. 

If anyone has heard of this before, or has any suggestions or advice as to a possible course of action, I would really appreciate any advice.

nyermen

At a guess, it hasn't cleared yet for some reason (a bit like cheques appear in your acount but cant be drawn against for a couple of days).  If you check a statement, presumably the £500 is showing the since the balance suggests as much.

Maybe the method of payment used by Wise means that Santander can't confirm the funds (yet?) or they're doing some compliance checks (unlikely for only 500 quid).

You'll have to check with Santander sadly, chances are it's now cleared today (maybe it takes a day and the bank holiday plus weekend means 1 working day from 29th will be 3rd May).

kevoxshockwave

nyermen said:

At a guess, it hasn't cleared yet for some reason (a bit like cheques appear in your acount but cant be drawn against for a couple of days).  If you check a statement, presumably the £500 is showing the since the balance suggests as much.

Maybe the method of payment used by Wise means that Santander can't confirm the funds (yet?) or they're doing some compliance checks (unlikely for only 500 quid).

You'll have to check with Santander sadly, chances are it's now cleared today (maybe it takes a day and the bank holiday plus weekend means 1 working day from 29th will be 3rd May).

Thanks nyerman, yes it seems that this is exactly what has happened, I called them and they are doing 'compliance checks'. Absolute robbery. Its my money !!!!!!. And I have payments due to leave the account today, which will force me overdrawn, and I don't have an overdraft, so they will bounce. Causing me to be to charged by the bank and have to re-sort the payments to the companies concerned. It is infuriating when it is MY money I sent to myself. But i guess i just gotta shrug it off and bow to the power of rthe banks.

jon81uk

Making a transfer from an overseas bank is never going to be instant, particularly on a bank holiday weekend. You should not have scheduled payments to leave today.

callum9999

jon81uk said:

Making a transfer from an overseas bank is never going to be instant, particularly on a bank holiday weekend. You should not have scheduled payments to leave today.

While leaving sufficient time is obviously best, they absolutely can be instant. I've received funds within 10 minutes several times using Wise. It's sent as a faster payment so bank holiday weekends are largely irrelevant for speed (unless they freeze it, but that can happen any day!).

jon81uk

callum9999 said:

jon81uk said:

Making a transfer from an overseas bank is never going to be instant, particularly on a bank holiday weekend. You should not have scheduled payments to leave today.

While leaving sufficient time is obviously best, they absolutely can be instant. I've received funds within 10 minutes several times using Wise. It's sent as a faster payment so bank holiday weekends are largely irrelevant for speed (unless they freeze it, but that can happen any day!).

Okay I should have said it shouldn't be assumed it will always be instant, especially with international payments and the bank holiday will add delays if they do need additional checks.

callum9999

jon81uk said:

callum9999 said:

jon81uk said:

Making a transfer from an overseas bank is never going to be instant, particularly on a bank holiday weekend. You should not have scheduled payments to leave today.

While leaving sufficient time is obviously best, they absolutely can be instant. I've received funds within 10 minutes several times using Wise. It's sent as a faster payment so bank holiday weekends are largely irrelevant for speed (unless they freeze it, but that can happen any day!).

Okay I should have said it shouldn't be assumed it will always be instant, especially with international payments and the bank holiday will add delays if they do need additional checks.

Just to add to that, a Wise transfer doesn't appear to be an international payment to the receiving bank - it's a faster payment from a UK current account.

JohnnyB70

kevoxshockwave said:

nyermen said:

At a guess, it hasn't cleared yet for some reason (a bit like cheques appear in your acount but cant be drawn against for a couple of days).  If you check a statement, presumably the £500 is showing the since the balance suggests as much.

Maybe the method of payment used by Wise means that Santander can't confirm the funds (yet?) or they're doing some compliance checks (unlikely for only 500 quid).

You'll have to check with Santander sadly, chances are it's now cleared today (maybe it takes a day and the bank holiday plus weekend means 1 working day from 29th will be 3rd May).

Thanks nyerman, yes it seems that this is exactly what has happened, I called them and they are doing 'compliance checks'. Absolute robbery. Its my money !!!!!!. And I have payments due to leave the account today, which will force me overdrawn, and I don't have an overdraft, so they will bounce. Causing me to be to charged by the bank and have to re-sort the payments to the companies concerned. It is infuriating when it is MY money I sent to myself. But i guess i just gotta shrug it off and bow to the power of rthe banks.

You’re being hyperbolic here. It’s not “robbery”, it’ll be normal checks to ensure that it’s legitimate. I bet you’d be the first to complain if a bank didn’t stop a fraudster, and that is all that is happening here.