Zopa - HSBC Transfer struggles

cedge43

So needed another savings account and thought I would give zopa a go.  No problems setting up a Zopa Saver Account, really like the simplicity of the app and idea of the pots and it seems that if the rates go up, then they generally pass on the increases.

My problems started when trying to transfer funds from HSBC (anything over a £1).  They just keep getting flagged as 'potential fraud alert' transfers and despite speaking to HSBC (well trying to anyway as the call quality is awful) and asking them to let these and all future payments to Zopa through, they continue to block them, what gives?  Furthermore, this whole process takes forever, zopa says payments go through between 20 minutes and 2 hours, I generally don't get an HSBC fraud alert until many hours later - very frustrating.  I also have zero confidence that the monthly standing order that I've set up with HSBC to my Zopa account will work either.

Does anyone else have these problems and how did they get around it?  Is it possible to set up an intermediary bank which is friends with both HSBC and Zopa, then set up monthly standing orders to ensure the easy seamless flow of my money from HSBC to zopa?

cedge43

And another transfer gets flagged for fraud by HSBC after asking them again to let through the transfers

tc66_2

Not just you, cedge. I just posted about my problems too in another thread:

I opened a Zopa account yesterday and have had an interesting experience.

I transferred some test sums from my HSBC account which all went through, taking around 20 minutes.

A final payment yesterday didn't go through, and was returned to my account after 3 hours.

I called HSBC today who confirmed that the payment was returned due to fraud checks. Worryingly, they also said it was unusual because the "payee" name on my faster transfer returned a "no match". Usually it should return an "unable to check".

Daliah

Sometimes life is too short, so here is what I would do:

1. raise a formal complaint with HSBC for the constant blocking of the same kind of transaction
2. send the money from HSBC to an account with a bank you know works with Zopa (assuming you have current accounts with other banks)
3. consider switching from HSBC altogether, making use of one of the current account switch offers

cedge43

Thanks for the response Daliah, I will do 1. I probably wont do 3 as I think it would be a lot of hassle/stress.  Any suggestions on 2. re a Zopa/HSBC friendly bank?

gt94sss2

cedge43 said:

Thanks for the response Daliah, I will do 1. I probably wont do 3 as I think it would be a lot of hassle/stress.  Any suggestions on 2. re a Zopa/HSBC friendly bank?

You may well have this problem with any bank. It could occur between any two financial organisations.

Have you tried paying money into Zopa from their app/open banking rather then from HSBC

wiseonesomeofthetime

My money flows smoothly between Monzo and Zopa, and also Chase and Zopa (when I remember to send from the correct, linked Chase account lol) using Faster Payments method.

Shedman

Same issue occurs with First Direct (which given they are part of HSBC group probably isn't a surprise) even though again you've spoken to them and confirmed and cleared a previous held transfer to Zopa account only the day before.

So you make another transfer the next day thinking it should all go through OK and then that gets held.   What is frustrating is when they don't eventually reach out to you to get you to confirm the transfer, even though you've spoken to CS to check if any flags on the transfer and are told there aren't, and then they just reverse it at the end of the day (as it transpires, as indicated by the complaints team, the fraud team are so 'overstretched' they didn't even get round to looking at the transaction). 

Anyway, having made a complaint and received profuse apologies, at least I got a nice bit of compo.

Sticking to making any more transfer via my Chase account in future.

cedge43

gt94sss2 said:

cedge43 said:

Thanks for the response Daliah, I will do 1. I probably wont do 3 as I think it would be a lot of hassle/stress.  Any suggestions on 2. re a Zopa/HSBC friendly bank?

You may well have this problem with any bank. It could occur between any two financial organisations.

Have you tried paying money into Zopa from their app/open banking rather then from HSBC

I tried both ways, same problem.

cedge43

Shedman said:

Same issue occurs with First Direct (which given they are part of HSBC group probably isn't a surprise) even though again you've spoken to them and confirmed and cleared a previous held transfer to Zopa account only the day before.

So you make another transfer the next day thinking it should all go through OK and then that gets held.   What is frustrating is when they don't eventually reach out to you to get you to confirm the transfer, even though you've spoken to CS to check if any flags on the transfer and are told there aren't, and then they just reverse it at the end of the day (as it transpires, as indicated by the complaints team, the fraud team are so 'overstretched' they didn't even get round to looking at the transaction). 

Anyway, having made a complaint and received profuse apologies, at least I got a nice bit of compo.

Sticking to making any more transfer via my Chase account in future.

So HSBC to Chase and then Chase to Zopa should be a possible route in the future, do Chase allow standing orders to be set up?

wiseonesomeofthetime

cedge43 said:

Shedman said:

...

So HSBC to Chase and then Chase to Zopa should be a possible route in the future, do Chase allow standing orders to be set up?

Yes. From both their current accounts and their savings accounts.