Santander declining debit card payment

itm2

I've been trying to move a large sum (£95k) from my Santander current account to an investment account at Interactive Investor. I've been using debit card payments, as these can be used for immediate trading (bank transfers are not available until the following day). I've been making the payments in tranches of £25k or less, to stay within the limits posted on the Santander website.
After the 2nd payment Santander started declining the payments, presumably for security reasons, so I called them. An hour later they have not been able to explain exactly what limit I have breached (if any), and they told me that debit card payment limits change "every day".
Can anyone offer any insight on what the spending limits should be on Santander debit cards?

CliveOfIndia

I suspect it's probably triggered their Anti-Money-Laundering system.  Whilst there may be a value limit on individual debit card transactions, any pattern of "unusual" behaviour can trigger the AML checks, and the bank is legally obliged to investigate.

eskbanker

I don't believe that there'll be a single limit figure that changes each day but would expect that their security algorithms will be much more dynamic than that and will encompass a range of factors rather than simply transaction value.

However, for what should be obvious reasons, banks won't disclose such information publicly!

itm2

What disappointed/annoyed me was that they were unable to transfer me to anyone in the bank who could authorise the transaction (and I spent >1 hour on the phone, speaking to a couple of different people, requesting escalation, etc).

HillStreetBlues

eskbanker said:
I don't believe that there'll be a single limit figure that changes each day but would expect that their security algorithms will be much more dynamic than that and will encompass a range of factors rather than simply transaction value.

However, for what should be obvious reasons, banks won't disclose such information publicly!

Agree, but call centre staff should be told not to just make up an answer.

CliveOfIndia

itm2 said:

What disappointed/annoyed me was that they were unable to transfer me to anyone in the bank who could authorise the transaction (and I spent >1 hour on the phone, speaking to a couple of different people, requesting escalation, etc).

If it was indeed AML (and I'm not saying for certain that it was) then they can't simply authorise the transaction - there's a whole raft of checks that have to take place, following strictly-documented procedures.  AML rules are legally-enforceable, and any financial institution that breaks the rules can find themself facing some pretty hefty penalties and fines.

itm2

CliveOfIndia said:

itm2 said:

What disappointed/annoyed me was that they were unable to transfer me to anyone in the bank who could authorise the transaction (and I spent >1 hour on the phone, speaking to a couple of different people, requesting escalation, etc).

If it was indeed AML (and I'm not saying for certain that it was) then they can't simply authorise the transaction - there's a whole raft of checks that have to take place, following strictly-documented procedures.  AML rules are legally-enforceable, and any financial institution that breaks the rules can find themself facing some pretty hefty penalties and fines.

Totally understand - I've been through those checks a few times before. But this time I wasn't even given the chance to enter into that process - it was a straight (and repeated) "no can do"

eskbanker

itm2 said:

What disappointed/annoyed me was that they were unable to transfer me to anyone in the bank who could authorise the transaction (and I spent >1 hour on the phone, speaking to a couple of different people, requesting escalation, etc).

Strange - coincidentally I also experienced two large debit card transactions being blocked by Santander last week, and on both occasions I was promptly put through to the fraud team who (after going through a bit of validating Q&A) were able to remove the block and waited on the phone while I put the transactions through again.  Less than 15 minutes on the phone in total each time....