Unable to transfer from my account
Discussion
We’re nearing the end of a protracted house purchase. My partner and I both sold our respective houses during lockdown and they went incredibly smoothly. We’re paying the price on this purchase as it’s been hard going at each point.
We’re now due to complete this Tuesday and were due to exchange Friday just gone. Exchange on Friday was important for several reasons but one of those was an elderly lady in the chain wanting certainty. We’d pushed for exchange earlier but others within the chain refused and wanted simultaneous exchange and completion. In the end we compromised on last Friday. We tried to send money from our Nationwide account to get the contracts exchanged but found a technical issue with the website preventing us moving the money to the solicitor. We contacted the call centre who couldn’t find an issue and confirmed there was no issue with the wider service and advised we try again in an hour. They also confirmed we had no restrictions on the account and that we should be able to move it. We ran into the same issue time and time again throughout Friday and after calling the call centre, head office and even going into branch nobody was able to help us move our money. Ultimately as a result we couldn’t exchange.
We’ve now been threatened by the lady who was insisting on exchange Friday wants to pull out. I know things often get said in the moment and she probably won’t so we’re still working on getting the money to the solicitor. We went into branch again yesterday and tried again with their computer, our computer, on several browsers. We tried the banking app and still faced the same ‘we’re having technical problems, please try later’. The only solution that was put forward by the bank was for us to pay £20 to use CHAPS and that would only guarantee the money would arrive by 17:30 on Monday which is too late. We’ve still taken that service as it was that or nothing. As they couldn’t find out a reason for the issue which appeared to only affect our account. The bank said although its guaranteed by 17:30 it’d probably be earlier. In any case, it still hasn’t solved our issue with moving other money from this account.
My partner’s distraught and we have no other idea as to how we can progress the simple task of moving our money to the solicitor’s account or where to go from here. Does anyone have any idea either what may have happened or who I could contact at Nationwide to help move this on?
We’re now due to complete this Tuesday and were due to exchange Friday just gone. Exchange on Friday was important for several reasons but one of those was an elderly lady in the chain wanting certainty. We’d pushed for exchange earlier but others within the chain refused and wanted simultaneous exchange and completion. In the end we compromised on last Friday. We tried to send money from our Nationwide account to get the contracts exchanged but found a technical issue with the website preventing us moving the money to the solicitor. We contacted the call centre who couldn’t find an issue and confirmed there was no issue with the wider service and advised we try again in an hour. They also confirmed we had no restrictions on the account and that we should be able to move it. We ran into the same issue time and time again throughout Friday and after calling the call centre, head office and even going into branch nobody was able to help us move our money. Ultimately as a result we couldn’t exchange.
We’ve now been threatened by the lady who was insisting on exchange Friday wants to pull out. I know things often get said in the moment and she probably won’t so we’re still working on getting the money to the solicitor. We went into branch again yesterday and tried again with their computer, our computer, on several browsers. We tried the banking app and still faced the same ‘we’re having technical problems, please try later’. The only solution that was put forward by the bank was for us to pay £20 to use CHAPS and that would only guarantee the money would arrive by 17:30 on Monday which is too late. We’ve still taken that service as it was that or nothing. As they couldn’t find out a reason for the issue which appeared to only affect our account. The bank said although its guaranteed by 17:30 it’d probably be earlier. In any case, it still hasn’t solved our issue with moving other money from this account.
My partner’s distraught and we have no other idea as to how we can progress the simple task of moving our money to the solicitor’s account or where to go from here. Does anyone have any idea either what may have happened or who I could contact at Nationwide to help move this on?
sebdangerfield said:
bigandclever said:
Did you hit the 10grand a day limit?
We thought that, although we’d preempted it and called Nationwide who said it’d be fine. But when we had the issue we tried down to £10k and even £1 and branch staff tried too but still didn’t work. NickCQ said:
Lesson learned. There is no need to wait until the day of exchange / completion to move money for exactly this reason - the cash is protected if it sits in your solicitor’s accounts for a day or so prior.
It was very much a last minute thing due to us and one other in the chain wanting to exchange earlier and two others within the chain wanting simultaneous exchange and completion. The whole process had been written off by us until after Christmas until we had news from the other parties within the chain on Friday that they wanted to exchange Friday for completion this Tuesday with the caveat from one other that if it isn't done the deal would be off. That provoked the panic on Friday and the situation were now in. Nationwide are still not acknowledging the issue but reaffirm that the CHAPS payment should be in much earlier than the 17:30 they guarantee. People under pressure act strangely. We've called her bluff and unsurprisingly she was first to chase it up this morning with the estate agents so clearly had no intention of pulling out Friday. We've now exchanged! The panic is over. We have just tried to send £1 to another account to see if our account is still broken and the same technical error message still came up. We're still unable to send money from our account.
Have you tried posting your story on the Nationwide Facebook & Twitter pages? You might get some attention that way:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/NationwideBuildingSocie...
Try posting on their Trustpilot page as well although with a a current score of 1.7 stars it look slike they don't care much about that:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.nationwide.co...
https://en-gb.facebook.com/NationwideBuildingSocie...
Try posting on their Trustpilot page as well although with a a current score of 1.7 stars it look slike they don't care much about that:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.nationwide.co...
Thankyou, yes we've been in touch via twitter and facebook, well my partner has as I don't have them. They've just been in touch and have told us to contact the branch again. It's really not being taken seriously and we have nobody to raise it to. Each time we call the service centre we're on hold for 45 minutes before we're passed around a serious of people who appear to not care and tell us to contact someone else. I think the only thing left is to let the Nationwide complaint to run its course and contact the ombudsman. It's just frustrating as we can't access any money from the account at all unless we pay for CHAPS each time.
Have you checked its not locked by the fraud team due to AML regs?
I had this with natwest, and the only way you could find out was speak to the fraud team directly as they didnt tell the frontline staff, nor did they put any markers on the account.
Pain in the bloody arse that was, apparently you're supposed to guess thats whats happening
I had this with natwest, and the only way you could find out was speak to the fraud team directly as they didnt tell the frontline staff, nor did they put any markers on the account.
Pain in the bloody arse that was, apparently you're supposed to guess thats whats happening
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
I don't know if I've missed it, but have you actually been to the branch (with identification). That's how we've always done ours.
Yes, we went in on Saturday morning and they confirmed there was no restriction on the account (we were sending £105,000 for a house purchase for clarification) and we could do that by internet banking. They assumed there was a technical glitch that would have resolved itself overnight but it still wouldn't send. We then tried on a different browser and then then they tried to send it for us after confirming us with identity etc. it didn't work for them either. We then tried £10k and £1 but nothing would leave the account. That's when they offered the only solution they could think of was to do the transfer by CHAPS for £20. We've now got the money to the solicitor (and exchanged
) so that panic's over but we still can't send any money from that account, we last tried with £1 about 30 minutes ago. Just 2 comments:-
Why on earth is the Exchange and Completion so close together nowadays. It was often the case that Exchange was the key issue, and Completion was anything up to 28 days later (allowing for orderly removal arrangements, any delays/problems etc). I don't understand why the parties don't ensure a sensible gap between Exchange and Completion - my own Estate Agent tried to suggest only 2 days gap and I refused.
If Nationwide can't explain the problem to your satisfaction you should keep escalating the issue to at least the Head of their Savings/Banking areas [ignore the branches]. Put in a Formal Complaint and demand a full explanation. If there is a system problem that they can't quickly explain it could be a sign of much bigger issues.
Why on earth is the Exchange and Completion so close together nowadays. It was often the case that Exchange was the key issue, and Completion was anything up to 28 days later (allowing for orderly removal arrangements, any delays/problems etc). I don't understand why the parties don't ensure a sensible gap between Exchange and Completion - my own Estate Agent tried to suggest only 2 days gap and I refused.
If Nationwide can't explain the problem to your satisfaction you should keep escalating the issue to at least the Head of their Savings/Banking areas [ignore the branches]. Put in a Formal Complaint and demand a full explanation. If there is a system problem that they can't quickly explain it could be a sign of much bigger issues.
sociopath said:
Have you checked its not locked by the fraud team due to AML regs?
I had this with natwest, and the only way you could find out was speak to the fraud team directly as they didnt tell the frontline staff, nor did they put any markers on the account.
Pain in the bloody arse that was, apparently you're supposed to guess thats whats happening
This crossed my mind. I have a friend who works in economic crime who explained that quite regularly they'll stop an account without informing anyone and even the bank staff wont know. He thought it was this this but then Nationwide wouldn't have been able to do the CHAPS payment on Saturday as they did if this was the case. I had this with natwest, and the only way you could find out was speak to the fraud team directly as they didnt tell the frontline staff, nor did they put any markers on the account.
Pain in the bloody arse that was, apparently you're supposed to guess thats whats happening
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