Anyone know about bank transfers? Panicking.

[MrsTingly]

On Friday I tried to transfer a large sum (tens of thousands to pay a builder) from my Post Office savings account to my Halifax current account. It apparently takes one working day.

Nothing had arrived this morning so I called the Post Office and was told it would arrive by 5.

It's now past 7 and the money has not arrived. I've called Halifax and they can't see anything on their system. Useless Post Office have closed their customer service centre for the night.

It definitely wasn't sent to the wrong account- the two accounts are linked so I can only transfer between them. It appears just to have vanished.

Anyone experienced this? Any ideas? Obviously I will call Post Office first thing but I'm so worried that I won't sleep a wink.

If it wasn't there by 5 I would imagine you will see it there by tomorrow. Try not to worry, but large sums can take longer to transfer.

I usually try to do it it smaller sums so I can be sure it went to the right account.

Not exactly the same but I recently did a transfer of several thousand between accounts on a Friday and it didn't actually hit my account until Monday at midnight. Had the same momentary panic but everything was fine, I think weekends delay things. Double check the bank details it went to, if those are correct I'm sure everything is fine.

Thanks both. The bank details are definitely right. Garagh, I know rationally it will be fine but I’m freaking out a bit!

Hopeful bounce

This the bank details are 100% fine then you have nothing to be worrying about

Was it different banks? Bank transfers can take 48hrs (business days) to a different bank. And with the weekend I’d say it’ll most likely show up tomorrow.

The bank may hold an unusual large payment to do additional fraud checks sometimes but I could be totally wrong.

It might have been stopped for a security check if it’s a large amount. Don’t worry - it won’t be lost.

I work in a bank.

Saturday isn't a business day. So it won't transfer until Monday. 1 business day when there is a weekend, gives them until close of business day in Monday. It doesn't mean anything is wrong.

I think you will be fine, these things can on occasion take longer to show than you'd hope.

With large sums I sometimes test the water first by transferring £1.00 first just to see it show up ok and then I feel more reassured transferring a large amount.

I was going to say that. You may need to talk to your bank to persuade them you aren't either money laundering or being scammed. Be thankful, an elderly lady I know was scammed out of £3k, but when they told her they needed another £5k the bank stopped her and found out what was happening.

I would check with the Halifax first thing and then escalate with PO.

Your savings accounts are held with Bank of Ireland UK so your PO branch will have sent an electronic instruction to BOI, to then do the onwards transfer. As previous posters have said, if it's a large sum it may go through further security checks to make sure all the details totally match up. A missed initial for a middle name in an account name for example.

www.postoffice.co.uk/savings-accounts

Remember apps aren't as live as you'd think, so if it takes 48 hours to move the money, it can be the next day it shows in the app. I know it's alarming, been through it where money disappears from one but is not in the other

Thank you. Aargh.

If it's an unusually large amount they may be doing fraud checks.

Sarurday and
Sunday aren't working days

I did the same from my post office saver on Friday and it’s not arrived yet (hsbc). The account details are correct, linked as you say so it’s a delay at the post office

Oh this is a great comfort, thank you.

Did it come through ok? @MrsTingly

It did today! Thank you everyone for reassuring me. Also meant I was able to tell DH as I couldn’t bring myself to tell yesterday 😄