Bank unreasonable?
Bank unreasonable?
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Discussion

Jack.77

Original Poster:

489 posts

68 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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The other day it took me about 45 minutes to set up a direct transfer and go through the whole security system to verify (this was only a company I had paid at least 10 times before but by cheque but exactly same account details ..a few minutes after paying I got a confirmation text so all good
And it showed as sent in statement

Then about 3 hrs later I got a message/ call from there fraud dept wanting to know how I paid and all the daft details like I had scammed someone or been scammed .after explaining to the woman it’s definitely not a scam and details correct she refused to authorise the payment and put it on hold until I could show evidence the payment details were correct .

They withheld the 500£ for 24hrs for no reason

Now this morning I noticed the funds were returned to me so may just pay by cheque or close the account with them as got no trust in them now

ro250

3,361 posts

81 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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The answer is because when someone is scammed they go crying to the bank and the media and it's somehow the banks fault.

You left out details about what they asked from you to verify and whether you did.

That said, whenever I've moved large sums and had fraud call me, it's always been painless and quite reassuring.

Jack.77

Original Poster:

489 posts

68 months

Friday 13th January 2023
quotequote all
ro250 said:
The answer is because when someone is scammed they go crying to the bank and the media and it's somehow the banks fault.

You left out details about what they asked from you to verify and whether you did.

That said, whenever I've moved large sums and had fraud call me, it's always been painless and quite reassuring.
Yes but I just found them way over the top with security protocols and the system useless as doesn’t work
I verified details about 3-4 times and once over the phone and gave them all the info they wanted

The lady from the fraud dept was full of odd irrelevant questions and didn’t seem to believe what I was saying but I didn’t get why couldn’t they just look at the acc details of the company I was paying and see I had paid them many times already

She said I have to give evidence the payment details were correct after I already explained several times they definitely were and had checked so it seemed a bit pointless having to phone back . I did try and gave up after long wait on hold, it just seemed like a pointless wind up to me







573

413 posts

225 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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What bank?

IME with banking apps you can shift £10k per transaction and it transfers instantly.

Chris Type R

8,875 posts

273 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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This happened to me not long ago with NW - I was forced to go through a lengthy script to approve a payment despite passing the identity check and saying multiple times that I knew what the payment was for and that I was authorising it.

Very annoying when it's your own money you're trying to spend - and you've validated identity and confirmed the purchase. From memory it wasn't a significant(i.e. life changing) amount of money - perhaps 3.5K.

It was far easier to spend 300K+ on a house a few weeks later. This was in branch, which unfortunately was closed a few weeks later.

Jack.77

Original Poster:

489 posts

68 months

Friday 13th January 2023
quotequote all
Chris Type R said:
This happened to me not long ago with NW - I was forced to go through a lengthy script to approve a payment despite passing the identity check and saying multiple times that I knew what the payment was for and that I was authorising it.

Very annoying when it's your own money you're trying to spend - and you've validated identity and confirmed the purchase. From memory it wasn't a significant(i.e. life changing) amount of money - perhaps 3.5K.

It was far easier to spend 300K+ on a house a few weeks later. This was in branch, which unfortunately was closed a few weeks later.
Yep NW as well. I didn’t know for 24 hrs if the money had sent or not as it showed on the statement as sent but they just withheld it for a day .and I don’t get the point in them asking all the questions /security checks if they had no intention of authorising the payment .

I might just close the account as don’t want this to happen again

Chris Type R

8,875 posts

273 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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Jack.77 said:
Chris Type R said:
This happened to me not long ago with NW - I was forced to go through a lengthy script to approve a payment despite passing the identity check and saying multiple times that I knew what the payment was for and that I was authorising it.

Very annoying when it's your own money you're trying to spend - and you've validated identity and confirmed the purchase. From memory it wasn't a significant(i.e. life changing) amount of money - perhaps 3.5K.

It was far easier to spend 300K+ on a house a few weeks later. This was in branch, which unfortunately was closed a few weeks later.
Yep NW as well. I didn’t know for 24 hrs if the money had sent or not as it showed on the statement as sent but they just withheld it for a day .and I don’t get the point in them asking all the questions /security checks if they had no intention of authorising the payment .

I might just close the account as don’t want this to happen again
I toyed with the same idea, but it's one of those 'devil you know' scenarios. I added a chunk of NW shares during lockdown, which have recovered nicely. I find that focusing on the gains helps in part to soothe away the irritation smile That, and the fact that they gave me a 2 year 0% credit card last year, which I'm using to part fund a house renovation.

sociopath

3,433 posts

90 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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Now imagine they withhold a payment, that indicated it had been processes, and don't tell you for a week.
Yep NW fraud team again.

VTC

2,351 posts

208 months

Friday 13th January 2023
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Santander Closed my account of 35years after insisting I send them copies of my passport to confirm ID.

I had purchased 9 houses previously all mortgaged with Santander, had the money from the last sale in the account
No questions related to transfers in/out etc just out of the blue kept calling me asking for a copy of my passport or they would eventually
restrict or close the account.

I withdrew everything and told them to do as they pleased.

Barclays joint account with MRS VTC since 1988
they now insist MRS VTC birth date is incorrect and we must attend a branch with passport etc to change our address and correct this mistake.

We have no idea how this error occurred all her wages from employment have been paid in Barclays along with investments etc.

only prob we are abroad so flying back to the UK to sort this is low priority
so they will continue to send any letters addressed to her to the wrong address(I have to keep mail redirection going to cover this)
they will not accept any other method of proving who she says she is other than a branch visit.

Edited by VTC on Friday 13th January 19:08

Chris Type R

8,875 posts

273 months

Friday 13th January 2023
quotequote all
VTC said:
Santander Closed my account of 35years after insisting I send them copies of my passport to confirm ID.

I had purchased 9 houses previously all mortgaged with Santander, had the money from the last sale in the account
No questions related to transfers in/out etc just out of the blue kept calling me asking for a copy of my passport or they would eventually
restrict or close the account.
It might have been due to KYC / AML regulations that they had to do this. Regardless, with all of these large organisations, loyalty counts for little. If anything you get a rawer deal than new customers.



Jack.77

Original Poster:

489 posts

68 months

Friday 13th January 2023
quotequote all
Maybe I shall have to bung them a cheque instead.a bit ridiculous considering how they always say in store it’s easier to pay online and get the app etc
NW keeps closing more and more branches as well I think they’re not doing themselves any favours

Jon39

14,567 posts

167 months

Friday 13th January 2023
quotequote all

Jack.77 said:
Maybe I shall have to bung them a cheque instead.a bit ridiculous considering how they always say in store it’s easier to pay online and get the app etc
NW keeps closing more and more branches as well, I think they’re not doing themselves any favours

I had some fun with Nat West years ago, when they were transferring customers signature records from card to computer.
Not every customer record was transferred properly. That resulted in a bounced cheque, followed by four figure compensation.
They were not alone though, because exactly the same thing happened a little later with Lloyd's. I xould not accept their immediate offer of compensation though, because that bounced cheque was within family. No harm done.

One thing that I have recently decided with NatWest, is never again to use their debit card for purchases.
If something goes wrong, they are in control. If you are legally entitled to be reimbursed, but then their fraud department blank you, that says it all about their intentions. Cannot get anywhere. Fortunately the amount involved was modest, but it certainly taught me the lesson, always to use credit cards for purchases, because the customer is then in control, should any difficulties arise.

Apart from that, my experience with NatWest has been OK.

Closing branches is purely because more and more of us, never go to bank branches. They can hardly keep them open, just for the needs of a few customers each week.




Edited by Jon39 on Friday 13th January 23:25

GT03ROB

13,996 posts

245 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
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Over Christmas I did a 6 figure overseas transfer with Natwest. Initiated it in the branch all nice & quick... maybe 10 mins. As I was walking out of the bank had a call from their fraud team. Quite a lot of questions, some repetitive, probably took 15mins in all.

Given the nature of the transaction I was Ok with the steps they took. Sensible & reasonable.

Ham_and_Jam

3,426 posts

121 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
quotequote all
573 said:
What bank?

IME with banking apps you can shift £10k per transaction and it transfers instantly.
You can. Until your transfer gets flagged by their systems as potential fraud. Then you have to go through exactly the same lengthy process to get it authorized.

An app doesn’t make the payment any different to any other method, if they think you are being scammed they will suspend the payment.

It happened to my father last year, then me a month later. Totally different banking groups. No obvious reason why, no explanations given even when asked. They won’t tell you other than it’s been flagged.

30 mins of what seems pointless questions gets the payment authorized. I found the best way is just be friendly to the call operator. I think they have a stty job and can get a lot of flack from peed off customers.


Dingu

4,893 posts

54 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
quotequote all
Jack.77 said:
Maybe I shall have to bung them a cheque instead.a bit ridiculous considering how they always say in store it’s easier to pay online and get the app etc
NW keeps closing more and more branches as well I think they’re not doing themselves any favours
They aren’t used enough, that’s why they are closed.

Vasco

18,009 posts

129 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
quotequote all
Dingu said:
Jack.77 said:
Maybe I shall have to bung them a cheque instead.a bit ridiculous considering how they always say in store it’s easier to pay online and get the app etc
NW keeps closing more and more branches as well I think they’re not doing themselves any favours
They aren’t used enough, that’s why they are closed.
Also, banks make profit from credit cards, mortgages and insurance. There's little benefit (other than cross-selling) in dealing with ordinary investors and transactions.

21ATS

1,105 posts

96 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
quotequote all
NW were always a bit of shambles.

Opened a business account with them years ago when they were under the RBS unmbrella.

All opened, cheque book arrived, cash deposited, trading normally.....but no card of any description.

I called and they said I couldn't have one.....so how did they expect me to administer the account, pay for fuel etc etc......after prying for some time they eventually admitted they didn't have any arrangement with VISA or Mastercard to provide cards on business accounts. Can you imagine. A bank not having the facility to provide cards!

Moved to Barclays, been with them ever since. Ideal if you don't want any facilities from them,which we don't. However if you want financing or borrowing of any dgree, the security they require over personal assets is extreme even in Banking circles.

They even tried to get security from us on the goverment backed CBILS loan and bounce back loan during covid, all of which the gov stated were security free.

So, they are what they are, a necessary evil that offer you an umbrella when it's sunny and want to take it away the moment it starts raining.

Understand how they operate and use the system.

OddCat

2,806 posts

195 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
quotequote all
Jack.77 said:
The other day it took me about 45 minutes to set up a direct transfer and go through the whole security system to verify (this was only a company I had paid at least 10 times before but by cheque but exactly same account details ..a few minutes after paying I got a confirmation text so all good
And it showed as sent in statement

Then about 3 hrs later I got a message/ call from there fraud dept wanting to know how I paid and all the daft details like I had scammed someone or been scammed .after explaining to the woman it’s definitely not a scam and details correct she refused to authorise the payment and put it on hold until I could show evidence the payment details were correct .

They withheld the 500£ for 24hrs for no reason

Now this morning I noticed the funds were returned to me so may just pay by cheque or close the account with them as got no trust in them now
Hold on. So they let you set up the recipient as a beneficiary and that passed all of the 'confirmation of payee' checks etc but, when you then went to make an online payment to that beneficiary, it appeared to work but the bank blocked it and ultimately refused it ? All for £500 ?

This has to be because there is something dodgy about the beneficiary. And / or it was some weird beneficiary using some fringe bank (Starling, Clearpay, Revolut etc) which fraudsters love or, worse still, some element of Crypto ???

There has to be more to this than meets the eye....



Jack.77

Original Poster:

489 posts

68 months

Saturday 14th January 2023
quotequote all
OddCat said:
Hold on. So they let you set up the recipient as a beneficiary and that passed all of the 'confirmation of payee' checks etc but, when you then went to make an online payment to that beneficiary, it appeared to work but the bank blocked it and ultimately refused it ? All for £500 ?

This has to be because there is something dodgy about the beneficiary. And / or it was some weird beneficiary using some fringe bank (Starling, Clearpay, Revolut etc) which fraudsters love or, worse still, some element of Crypto ???

There has to be more to this than meets the eye....
Yep but nothing odd about the payment I was attempting to make ,they just got funny got no reason .(as mentioned I had payed them at least 15 times already )






Funky Squirrel

484 posts

96 months

Sunday 15th January 2023
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OddCat said:
Hold on. So they let you set up the recipient as a beneficiary and that passed all of the 'confirmation of payee' checks etc but, when you then went to make an online payment to that beneficiary, it appeared to work but the bank blocked it and ultimately refused it ? All for £500 ?

This has to be because there is something dodgy about the beneficiary. And / or it was some weird beneficiary using some fringe bank (Starling, Clearpay, Revolut etc) which fraudsters love or, worse still, some element of Crypto ???

There has to be more to this than meets the eye....
2nd. I suspect it was something about the company being paid that was flagged. Previous payments are not a guarantee of future payments.