Helpdesk: Powerless to trace urgent funds transferred internationally

Jane Bradley tackles your consumer questions and dilemmas

Q: On 25 January, I asked the Royal Bank of Scotland to make an international transfer for £3,130. The money was to be sent to my business partner as a deal to buy out our small business. The negotiations about this sum were pretty tense, and she needs the funds urgently, so I personally went in to my branch at St Andrew Square and paid an extra £27 fee for a one to two day business transfer. The teller said the funds would likely be through on 26 January – but if not then, definitely by the following day.

On 28 January, the payee contacted me to say the funds had not arrived. I called RBS, but was told they wouldn’t be able to speak to International Payments until Monday, 30 January. On Monday, around 9am, I called St Andrews Square branch and was told the payment had left my account, and that there was nothing more I can do unless I wanted to pay a £25 fee to “chase the payment”. She gave me a payment reference number.

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I contacted the payee and asked her to speak with her bank, Westpac in Australia, to confirm the situation. Her bank informed her that no funds had been received. We double checked her account details, Swift code etc against the receipt I had, everything tallied.

The next day, I spoke to someone who set up an investigation to try to trace the funds.

Another day later, I was told that the investigation had been logged and just read out the same details I already knew. I told the woman I spoke to that the situation was causing me a lot of inconvenience and stress, but she told me that I had to be patient, that the case had only been logged the previous day. I pointed out the payment had been due last Friday, and that when I called on Monday 30 January, I wasn’t offered the option of logging the case. She just said they had done all they could.

I told the payee to chase the funds with Westpac. I was later told that I should hear by Tuesday 7 February at the latest what was going on and that “there might even be the possibility of a full resolution”. I phoned on that date – and on subsequent days – and was told that because of the time difference, it would probably be the end of the week before they had an answer for me.

However, my partner has still not received her funds.

RH, Edinburgh

A: A spokesman for RBS said: “We can confirm that the international payment was sent to the payee as requested, however given the delay in this being credited to the payee’s account, we have asked the receiving bank in Australia to investigate the matter. We are still awaiting the results of the investigation, but we will contact the customer as soon as we have further information.”

• If you have a consumer issue that you would like tackling, contact Jane Bradley on 0131 620 8432 or e-mail [email protected].