Santander twice locked current account after attempting 25k payment to Wise

frankie

I've recently gone through a similar situation when trying to transfer £20000 to Virgin. Then to make matters worse was locked out of my Marcus at the same time.  Took over a week and several calls to less than knowledgeable call centre workers before my account was fully functional again.

I raised a written complaint and today received a standard reply which basically said there automated security systems had caused the lockout.  There's the rub, too much reliance on automation rather than dealing with a knowledgeable human interface.

Anyway they gave me £100 compensation.  Therefore it is definitely worth raising a formal complaint.

I'm thinking its not only Santander though, most services have switched to automated system, which are OK when things go smoothly, but it can be damned difficult to get to talk to anyone with any knowledge other than a script answerer.

jcuurthht

Daliah said:

a while ago, Santander gave me 0800 151 3151 as the direct number for their Security team 

I think I'll have to be pro-active and give this number a call, say the transfers are time sensitive and hope that has some effect.

Daliah

jcuurthht said:

Daliah said:

a while ago, Santander gave me 0800 151 3151 as the direct number for their Security team 

I think I'll have to be pro-active and give this number a call, say the transfers are time sensitive and hope that has some effect.

I used it a couple of times to get blocked payments released. There's been a short Q both times, and I got the Spanish inquisition but I just calmly answered all the Qs and had my payments released. It helps if you have your voice registered, as that will shorten the ID confirmation.

jcuurthht

Daliah said:

jcuurthht said:

Daliah said:

a while ago, Santander gave me 0800 151 3151 as the direct number for their Security team 

I think I'll have to be pro-active and give this number a call, say the transfers are time sensitive and hope that has some effect.

I used it a couple of times to get blocked payments released. There's been a short Q both times, and I got the Spanish inquisition but I just calmly answered all the Qs and had my payments released. It helps if you have your voice registered, as that will shorten the ID confirmation.

Yeah I spoke to them and they just gave me the fob off and said it will take more time and they are dealing with lots of fraud requests etc.

jcuurthht

A final update: I called last Wednesday and the guy elevated it to time sensitive. I was told to expect a call in 48 hours. By Tuesday I had received no call, so called again. The guy saw the fraud team had closed the case and unlocked my account. He said I should have received a call or text from them. Very stressful 2 weeks.

steveksullivan

If you have all the relevant dates and times of calls which promised call backs it's definitely formal complaint time .... in general, whilst they can be crap at returning promised calls etc. they are usually good at 'resolving' complaints, often on the first call - as long as you aren't too demanding.

Unfortunately, even though Santander are my main bank, I have had to go this route many, MANY times.....

steveksullivan

jcuurthht said:

A final update: I called last Wednesday and the guy elevated it to time sensitive. I was told to expect a call in 48 hours. By Tuesday I had received no call, so called again. The guy saw the fraud team had closed the case and unlocked my account. He said I should have received a call or text from them. Very stressful 2 weeks.

Bloody hell how ironic!!

Just tried to move 10K from Virgin through my Santander account and on to my Chase account .....

Payment blocked and online banking locked out.....

1 hour 10 mins to get through to the fraud team. All fixed but they could not take a complaint!! Said they would get complaints to get back to me .....'hang on, I'll check their timescales ...... err... within 7 days ....is that OK? ' NOOOOO!!

Get a manager to call me back tomorrow ......

Also ..... quizzed for ages on why I would want to keep my Santander balance (0% interest rate....) at £0 and frequently move money to my Chase Instant access account ..... ?????

Daliah

steveksullivan said:

Just tried to move 10K from Virgin through my Santander account and on to my Chase account .....

What's the reason for not sending the money from Virgin directly to Chase?

If you receive £x into a current account and immediately pay the same £x to another account, alarm bells will go off at any bank. Especially if x is 10,000. 

I think it's unlikely that a complaint will succeed, especially as you managed to get the block lifted.

steveksullivan

Daliah said:

What's the reason for not sending the money from Virgin directly to Chase?

I could have done - but as the payments were already set up from Virgin => Santander and Santander => Chase it was slightly easier to do it this way - and as the amounts were well within limits and both payments had been used before I didn't foresee any problems (?!?!?!?)

Daliah said:

If you receive £x into a current account and immediately pay the same £x to another account, alarm bells will go off at any bank. Especially if x is 10,000.

I didn't  - the amounts were different. (25K in, 10K out)

Daliah said:

I think it's unlikely that a complaint will succeed, especially as you managed to get the block lifted.

We'll see ........

Daliah

It sounds a bit of an excuse that using the roundabout payment approach because  it saved you from setting up a new payee in Virgin. You might not have expected problems but your expectation was wrong, as you have now found out.

I am afraid, your reports of the problem are also not coherent. Initially you said you paid £10k through, and your Santander account was left at zero. Now you say you paid £25k in and only £10k out. Your chances of getting any compo are already slim, and are not enhanced by changing the account of what happened.