Melton Mowbray Building Society

Speculator

Kept on getting phone calls from a 0800 number over the last few weeks so googled it and lots of people saying it's a scam from someone pretending they are Santander so didn't answer. 

I called the number on the back of my debit card instead and they just wanted to update my email address and promised I should not be getting anymore calls from Santander.

Got more calls so I went into a branch of Santander and they didn't recognise the number but gave me a different 0800 number to call.

Also received a letter from the Santander asking me to call them "to meet UK legal and regulatory obligations" and if I fail to do so by a certain date, they will close my account.

Phoned them yesterday and spoke to a Spanish lady who was very difficult to understand but fortunately their system was down so agreed to call again today.

Today, spoke to another Spanish lady who spoke better English. They wanted to know what are these monthly payments from a "Melton Mowbray" for around £129.

I explained that they are monthly interest payments from my fixed rate bond with Melton Mowbray Building Society. She then said "oh so its a Bank?"

She said that's all the information they need.

Hope that's the end of it.

UnsureAboutthis

Why not set up a meeting with your local branch and get it sorted? 

I'm guessing  they might have thought "meleton M" was a person is the way I see it. 

So, set up a meet with your local branch rather than just walking in as you will get more time that way.

Speculator

UnsureAboutthis said:

Why not set up a meeting with your local branch and get it sorted? 

I'm guessing  they might have thought "meleton M" was a person is the way I see it. 

So, set up a meet with your local branch rather than just walking in as you will get more time that way.

I got the call at 2.15pm when I was on a train to Stratford London. Luckily, Stratford still has a branch of Santander and I manage to locate it just before their 3pm closing time.

refluxer

Speculator said:

Today, spoke to another Spanish lady who spoke better English. They wanted to know what are these monthly payments from a "Melton Mowbray" for around £129.

I explained that they are monthly interest payments from my fixed rate bond with Melton Mowbray Building Society. She then said "oh so its a Bank?"

I'm struggling to see why it would make a difference to them who the payment was from, unless the account or sort code that particular payment was coming from had been flagged as suspicious in some way ?

This really does make you wonder how intelligent their anti-fraud/anti-money laundering systems are if they can't identify payments coming from one of the oldest building societies in the UK.

Hopefully this is just a strange glitch and not a taste of things to come !

wmb194

"A name like Melton Mobray has to be fraudulent!"

It uses HSBC as its clearing bank so, assuming it's using accounts at the same branch (40-05-30) for outward payments, Santander's seeing deposits from a weird name from the City of London branch of HSBC. 

I guess the fraud systems just don't know the clearing banks that smaller BS' use? Perhaps there are cases of fraud going to them? E.g., someone used Melton for money muling and the collection account ended up being flagged rather than just the MMBS a/c reference number?

https://www.themelton.co.uk/savings_information/paying-in-to-your-account/

masonic

So this is a thread about Santander's security practices? Wouldn't have guessed it from the thread title.

Kim_13

Did you fund the bond from Santander originally? You would especially expect them to be able to tie the two together if you had. When funds are going to a Building Society, it’s more likely they are being saved and therefore that there will be interest and later repayment of the principal coming back.

I’d agree it’s more of a Santander issue - it’s them that a number they don’t recognise is calling pretending to represent and them that are failing to recognise payments from a UK regulated provider. Halifax, Nationwide and Chase are yet to question me on my dealings with Melton Mowbray BS.

ForumUser7

Speculator said:

Kept on getting phone calls from a 0800 number over the last few weeks so googled it and lots of people saying it's a scam from someone pretending they are Santander so didn't answer. 

I called the number on the back of my debit card instead and they just wanted to update my email address and promised I should not be getting anymore calls from Santander.

Got more calls so I went into a branch of Santander and they didn't recognise the number but gave me a different 0800 number to call.

Also received a letter from the Santander asking me to call them "to meet UK legal and regulatory obligations" and if I fail to do so by a certain date, they will close my account.

Phoned them yesterday and spoke to a Spanish lady who was very difficult to understand but fortunately their system was down so agreed to call again today.

Today, spoke to another Spanish lady who spoke better English. They wanted to know what are these monthly payments from a "Melton Mowbray" for around £129.

I explained that they are monthly interest payments from my fixed rate bond with Melton Mowbray Building Society. She then said "oh so its a Bank?"

She said that's all they information they need.

Hope that's the end of it.

It might be worth dropping MMBS a secure message re this - so they can investigate with their provider (HSBC) in case anything is up at their end. Could just have triggered on your account though of course