Halifax Pita Over Online Swift Transfer

[phaethon]

In case you're apt to try and get cash transferred online in a rush...

I tried to do a SWIFT transfer of about GBP6k yesterday to find the new Halifax online system has dumped all previous transaction records and I had to set up a new one to my Kasikorn account.

The real problem came when I found they now insist on making a telephone call to confirm the transaction and, guess what , the system doesn't accept overseas numbers.I tried entering my Thai mobile number and although that failed I was informed (later when I called to complain) that while the change would have been effective immediately, my changing a telephone number would lock the account down (for SWIFT transfers) for SEVEN days.

It was suggested that I could use a Thai number if my address where Thai also, but I foresee that causing more problems than it solves.

I could apparently do it by telephone but in the time it took to get to that advice I had carried out a transfer online from Nationwide for GBP25 instead of Halifax's GBP9.50 - a GBP15.50 hit but I was tired and fed-up and I wanted to teach them a lesson by losing money.

MORAL: Don't leave your SWIFT transfers to the last minute and expect that the bank won't have thrown something new into the mix to screw up your day.

Does anyone know which bank has the current highest limit for free over-the-counter withdrawals on a Nationwide card? Used to be Bangkok Bank at about THB100k/transaction (Kasikorn only THB50k)

Edited December 15, 2011 by phaethon

[BuckBee]

Yes found that out myself this evening.

Luckily I have my UK SIM with a chunk of credit which is linked to all my UK banks & toggle sim on Phone & do the verification. verification takes only 1 minute.

Must say I think it is poor to wipe those saved details without notification, simple option of revalidating existing contacts would of been better & far far more logical, typical of modern methods becoming more trouble than they are worth.

All set up but missed todays 3pm cutoff so will do it tomorrow if Kasikorn handle transactions on a Saturday ! Anyone know answer to that ?

[cardholder]

Yes found that out myself this evening.

Luckily I have my UK SIM with a chunk of credit which is linked to all my UK banks & toggle sim on Phone & do the verification. verification takes only 1 minute.

Must say I think it is poor to wipe those saved details without notification, simple option of revalidating existing contacts would of been better & far far more logical, typical of modern methods becoming more trouble than they are worth.

All set up but missed todays 3pm cutoff so will do it tomorrow if Kasikorn handle transactions on a Saturday ! Anyone know answer to that ?

1. I believe that Kasikorn do NOT do transactions at the weekend.

2. Since the recent changes it seems to take 1 day longer to move funds from the UK to Thailand. I have done 3 since the change and all transfers were received on day 3.

I had one other issue in that I fund Halifax from my main bank account. I transferred £1,000 which was sent FPS and showed on the Halifax account almost immediately. Problem - when I went to make the SWIFT payment the system told me I had insufficient funds !! I got round by clicking on the 'want an overdraft' (or similar) button, applying for (and getting) a £2k OD facility which then allowed the transfer. The account never went overdrawn but it is a mystery to me why available funds were not recognised once the BACS payment had been received (and was showing as available on screen).

[BuckBee]

Kasikorn customer service told me transactions are handled on Saturdays.

Will do a transfer today & see when it clears to balance, won't be a fair test on either Halifax or Kasikorn as all new transfer details have had to be supplied again & as indicated above current Halifax transfers seem to be a day slower, money could turn up at Kasikorn on Saturday but not get handled until Monday so won't know who's performing well & who's not :-/

Ridiculous of Halifax to wipe saved transfer details, these were tried & tested, should of left them saved & just required security validation prior to using under new website.

Going to cause a lot of complaints/customer support work load through annoyance, mistake & people needing assistance setting up transfer details.

New online transfer does not have a "Note" section which is another minus.

Old setup was perfect, why when a company has a good setup do they spend time & money cocking it up ... No wonder the west is close to broke with this incompetent approach to provided services.

[BuckBee]

Double post something else to moan about, iKooL 3G

Edited December 16, 2011 by BuckBee

[phaethon]

There was a slight wrinkle in the Nationwide transfer as I didn't give a reason for the transfer (I think they must have expected me to put this in the 'note' section, but didn't make this clear) but they DID contact me via their online message system (with notification about the new message via email) and accepted the response via the same, so at least they kept it online.

The money left on Thursday and was in KBank by this morning (Saturday), but dated as 16/12 (Friday)., so pretty quick.

Of course with the Nationwide I have to use my bank card and little encoding gizmo to generate an authorization code for online transactions which has caused problems in the past when my card wouldn't work...

I think I will, though, go back to the 20th century and make smaller more frequent transfers OTC at BB and then walk the money down to KBank and save the GBP25.

[BuckBee]

Nationwide OTC transaction: you get 2% fee by Nationwide + any other fees ? Do they transfer using TT rate ?

[bifftastic]

I found out the same way a couple of months ago. My Bangkok Bank account details had been wiped from my Halifax account and when I tried to re-enter them it caused all sorts of problems.

Also my old Halifax login name has now been changed to a set of numbers! Nothing at all to do with me, nor did I get any notice that any of this was going to happen.

I went to a branch (I live in London) and was told that they were in the process of changing over to the Lloyds TSB system.

Eventually, with the person in the branch's help, we discovered that I had to enter the door number and the street name to my Bangkok Bank address in the Halifax system, even though it doesn't have either in it's address in my passbook, and the branch is clearly identified by the first three numbers of the account number.

It took a day or so of mucking about to re-instate the service that, as someone else mentioned, worked perfectly well in the first place, and now it takes 24 hours longer to make the transfer!

wanke_rs!

[phaethon]

Also my old Halifax login name has now been changed to a set of numbers! Nothing at all to do with me, nor did I get any notice that any of this was going to happen.

I don't get that.... first page username/password, followed by a second page of randomly selected characters from a memorable phrase. Perhaps they just haven't got around to screwing me in that way yet.

wanke_rs!

But I do 'get' that

[phaethon]

Nationwide OTC transaction: you get 2% fee by Nationwide + any other fees ? Do they transfer using TT rate ?

Last time I did OTC with Nationwide FlexCard there was no fee and the rate was within a couple of percentage points of the rate published on the BBC site for that day. But... that was over a year ago.

This last SWIFT transfer came in at 48.31THB/GBP yesterday's rate was 48.59644 according to http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/THB/GBP/T (GBP25 fee appeared as a separate item at source, equivalent to ~0.42% on GBP6k)

[Murgatroyd]

I just did a 10K transfer from Santander... and found that they wanted me to fax a copy of the detail page from my passport to authenticate the transfer... Outside Bangkok there seem to be very few Fax shops that will do an international fax. So yes... 24 hours delay... seems par for the course now.

[bifftastic]

Also my old Halifax login name has now been changed to a set of numbers! Nothing at all to do with me, nor did I get any notice that any of this was going to happen.

I don't get that.... first page username/password, followed by a second page of randomly selected characters from a memorable phrase. Perhaps they just haven't got around to screwing me in that way yet.

wanke_rs!

But I do 'get' that

Yes, everything is the same as it was, the username/password first page and the selection of three excerpts from my memorable info, but the username had been changed!

I was suitably annoyed at the time, and since this thread has reminded me of just how p'd off I was, I've sent them an email of complaint asking them just exactly how they see the changes as an improvement.

I doubt that much will come of it, but it's always good to vent to the people who caused the problem in the first place, especially since I was assured in the Halifax branch, that the transfer times would be unaffected.

The previous best was a little under two hours, now it's 3 days!

[briley]

Don't forget if you have a UK sim card you can put it into an unlocked phone to get the code from Halifax, it is free to receive an SMS.

I have put my Thai land line number into Halifax, put it as my work number so my UK land line. It shows up as my number but I haven't asked them to call me on it yet. And no, my address is not Thailand but the UK. Agreed the 7 day wait is a pain. But easier to cope with than trying to find nationwide gizmo and the card - I'm always forgetting where they both are hidden.

Nationwide charge 2.5% plus £1 so £300 costs 2.8% to transfer or £8.50.

[BuckBee]

You can complain to Halifax via online email form at link below.

https://www.halifax....tag=online_form

I have made a complaint. Been 3 days & funds not reached Kasikorn yet. Initial transaction was completed 8am (UK time) on Friday 16th ! shocking service & no calls to indicate any problems, had my UK linked mobile number on all the time in anticipation ! .

*On old system I was having funds available in 14hrs :-O (8pmBkk online order=10amBkk Kasikorn credited account) *

Problem is Lloyds have a nasty habit of holding all transaction funds for a day or 2 in a customer unfriendly no interest virtual & invisible account. On all daily transfers that's a few million quid rolling daily with no interest .

LTSB is one of the most customer unfriendly & bad investment advisor's available, I hope Halifax can keep away from Lloyds approach to banking as much as possible :-/

Edited December 20, 2011 by BuckBee