Missing balance transfer funds (NatWest / HSBC)

ak_83

On 4th July, I requested a balance transfer from my HSBC card to my new NatWest credit card. Unfortunately I had given them my HSBC debit card number by mistake, instead of my HSBC credit number. But the funds are not in my debit account either  

I called HSBC and asked them to investigate. They emailed me on 1st August stating: 

I’ve reviewed both our Debit and Credit Card internal accounts, the funds have not reached any of our internal accounts. When a payment is received, if the details are incorrect, we will return the payment back to the remitting bank, as we cannot credit this payment. 

Please be assured, I’ve checked all of our accounts, and I’ve been unable to locate your missing payment, please contact NatWest to escalate this matter further. 

So I called NatWest and after many escalations, they finally sent me the following email: 

As per my investigation, I can see that the balance transfer recall was initiated earlier and it was rejected as recall was confirmed via HSBC.After having few discussions with our internal payment team, I would able to find the payment details and status. The payment has been credited as per instruction, however it never came back after requesting a recall of payment as well.

In that case, I request you to contact HSBC providing the below payment details as  the funds lies with them only. You can ask them to transfer the funds to your correct credit card account with them or transfer back the funds to NatWest BT suspense account (XXXXXX XXXXXXXX), please check and keep me posted with the update, I will be happy to assist you. The payment details you can provide HSBC to locate the funds are as below:

FP ID - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Date of payment – 04/07/2023
Credit sort code and account - XXXXXX XXXXXXXX
Amount - £XXXX

Is the FP ID sufficient for HSBC to find the funds? I have responded to HSBC's email with the above information but I am concerned that this will go on for months! I have also emailed NatWest and asked them to remove the debt from my card as I never received the funds in any of my accounts at HSBC. 

Any advice or tips on what I should do next? Please help! Thank you in advance. 

born_again

Well I take it that the 16 digit ref used was your debit card.
So if HSBC have checked the CC internal account & that is where ALL CC payments go & are then directed to the correct acc using the reference. If it is not showing in there, then it will have been bounced back to natwest & they need to check their internal accounts.

Although I would give HSBC another try giving then the date, time, amount & reference used. Having worked these types of accounts, given the shear amount of transactions. It is very easy to miss one. Especially if you do not have the full info.

ak_83

born_again said:

Well I take it that the 16 digit ref used was your debit card.
So if HSBC have checked the CC internal account & that is where ALL CC payments go & are then directed to the correct acc using the reference. If it is not showing in there, then it will have been bounced back to natwest & they need to check their internal accounts.

Yes, the 16 digit reference was my HSBC debit card instead of my HSBC credit card (grabbed the wrong one when providing the number over the phone). 

I suspect that HSBC couldn't find it in their internal accounts the 1st time round, as they didn't have all of the information (or they simply missed it).

born_again said:

Although I would give HSBC another try giving then the date, time, amount & reference used. Having worked these types of accounts, given the shear amount of transactions. It is very easy to miss one. Especially if you do not have the full info.

I've emailed them again, and this time included all of the information from NatWest (FP ID, the specific sort code and account number, reference, etc).

Is that everything HSBC would need? Is there any reason why they wouldn't be able to find it?

born_again

Not sure how HSBC system works in terms of FP & CC.
All I can say is payments come into a generic holding acc for all CC payments & then get moved (should be via system) to the correct account.
Debit card no, should not tally to any CC account, hopefully. So it is just a case of looking very carefully as there is no search function on these internal accounts to find the transaction.
If it's not there, then NW need to look through their internal accounts for it being bounced back to them.

ak_83

born_again said:

Not sure how HSBC system works in terms of FP & CC.
All I can say is payments come into a generic holding acc for all CC payments & then get moved (should be via system) to the correct account.
Debit card no, should not tally to any CC account, hopefully. So it is just a case of looking very carefully as there is no search function on these internal accounts to find the transaction.
If it's not there, then NW need to look through their internal accounts for it being bounced back to them.

Yes, I assumed the same; if the debit card number doesn't tally then it should get rejected and bounced back to the sender, NatWest. 

But in this case, NatWest claims that: "the balance transfer recall was initiated earlier and it was rejected as recall was confirmed via HSBC.After having few discussions with our internal payment team, I would able to find the payment details and status. The payment has been credited as per instruction, however it never came back after requesting a recall of payment as well."

And it's been 3 months now since the payment went through! 

born_again

ak_83 said:

born_again said:

Not sure how HSBC system works in terms of FP & CC.
All I can say is payments come into a generic holding acc for all CC payments & then get moved (should be via system) to the correct account.
Debit card no, should not tally to any CC account, hopefully. So it is just a case of looking very carefully as there is no search function on these internal accounts to find the transaction.
If it's not there, then NW need to look through their internal accounts for it being bounced back to them.

Yes, I assumed the same; if the debit card number doesn't tally then it should get rejected and bounced back to the sender, NatWest. 

But in this case, NatWest claims that: "the balance transfer recall was initiated earlier and it was rejected as recall was confirmed via HSBC.After having few discussions with our internal payment team, I would able to find the payment details and status. The payment has been credited as per instruction, however it never came back after requesting a recall of payment as well."

And it's been 3 months now since the payment went through! 

It would only get bounced back if manually checked. System will accept with a wrong or no reference. As these are internal accounts to receive payments to a Credit Card. Only once debited are they transferred to the correct credit card account.
Wrong & no reference require manual intervention to resolve.
But even if returned it will leave a trace. As these accounts require a matching credit & debit to balance off.

ak_83

Result! 

HSBC have found the money in the sort code and account number I had provided them. Apparently NatWest should not have transferred the balance to this account and this was classed as a bank error. HSBC also explained that had I not provided this information after going back and forth between banks, then HSBC would never have looked in that account. 

They've transferred all of the money to me and paid me compensation too!