Hidden transaction charges not explained

Grahampclements

My bank Nationwide has received a payment to my account from overseas through CHAPS and they have confirmed they have received the full amount. The amount they have entered into my account is £30 less. There is no explanation of any charges or anything appearing on my account to justify the missing £30. I have had other overseas CHAPS payment before and this has not happened. Their SWIFT baking is done through an intermediary, HSBC. I have just spent an hour on the phone and they keep saying contact the sending bank. I have record of the payment from the sending bank for the correct amount, and the call handler was able to tell me the correct amount was received as Nationwide could see a record of receiving it, and they would not know the correct amount unless they had received it. Apart from keep giving me the pointless mantra of 'contact the sending bank', they could give me no explanation of the difference, or how any charge had been calculated, and who had levied it. Had it been charged by HSBC and was this a recharge? I have raised a complaint as surely if the amount received from the sending bank is conformed as correct, and the amount received in my bank is less, there has to be a record of the charge, or that money just disappears into the ether without any explanation! That would be contrary to any accounting rules I know, and to the banking code. I have raised a complaint and although it is only £30, if I am to receive payments from overseas it is quite dangerous if the bank can just take a charge out of the money without recording it or explaining it! 

herebeme

The sender may have ticked the box to apply their fees to you. It’s ages since I made one of these transactions, but when I used to send money back to myself I seem to remember I could pick where the fees were applied. Have you asked the sender rather than the sending bank? 

dunstonh

It has been a very long time since my foreign desk days at a bank but it was always the case that the sender of the money decides whether charges to be paid by them or paid out of the amount sent.

I have just spent an hour on the phone and they keep saying contact the sending bank

This is correct as the instruction is given to the sending bank. The receiving bank just gets the net figure sent to them.

 Apart from keep giving me the pointless mantra of 'contact the sending bank', they could give me no explanation of the difference, or how any charge had been calculated, and who had levied it.

Unless the clerk has had training on the foreign desk, that is to be expected.    

 I have raised a complaint and although it is only £30, if I am to receive payments from overseas it is quite dangerous if the bank can just take a charge out of the money without recording it or explaining it! 

It would be explained to the sender.  It would not be explained to the receiver. 

Grahampclements

Interesting, but surely if the receiving banks CHAPS transaction record is showing they received the gross figure, then the whole of that gross figure should be transferred to my account, or the charge made by the receiving bank detailed to my account as well as the net figure, showing that the charge is accounted for. If the sending bank were instructed to debit the charge from the gross figure, then surely the receiving banks CHAPS transaction record would only show the net figure. Here we have both the sending banks and the receiving banks CHAPS transaction record showing the gross figure, but the net figure going into my account with no explanation from either side as to who has made the charge, how it was calculated or where it has gone, and no accounting for it!