...to think the HALIFAX should care more about this....?

[ginnybag]

In brief, a friend of mine is getting married at the end of the month.

In July, she had to fly back to the US, because her mother was dying.

One of the last things her mother did, was instruct her to use some of the Life Insurance money to pay for the wedding. She couldn't be there in person, but she wanted to be part of the day - she told her Daughter to have a 'proper party' on her behalf.

Friend returned the UK on the 14th Sept. The same day, she went into Halifax, and paid in the cheque for the money. I was there when she did this, and she followed all instructions from the Clerk.

She was told it would be, at most, 4 weeks for the funds to be available - the 12th October.

They've not even started the process.

The cheque was passed the following friday, 5 days later, to some 'team that deals with International payments', who referred it back to Branch.

Branch, then, did nothing until she rang them last week to enquire where it was up to. Then said they didn't have. Then said they did, but she'd have to come in and refill all the paperwork.

She did.

Then it 'got lost' again, and now she can't get anyone to give her a straight answer.

Can anyone advise on what she should do next? She needs that money to pay for her wedding, but aside from that, she really does not need the stress of a cheque for several thousand pounds floating around and no-one knowing where it is!

Help!!

Tis extremely crap. Try tweeting them, or contact the Geoup CEO, Antonio Horta-Osorio

Get on to the personal finance pages of a national newspaper - the Guardian and the Mail have money problem pages where they put a boot up the arse of banks. I've seen just this kind of thing resolved on there.

Thank you, shall pass both those on.

Think she's tried tweeting already, albeit, I don't think it's been picked up!

Do you know if it is a cheque drawn on an American bank written in USD or GBP?

Both are handled differently and the branch staff have likely given her the 'wrong' bit of paperwork to complete.

She should have a receipt, does she have this?

Complain, in writing, stating that it is a formal complaint and she will go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if it isn't resolved quickly and to her satisfaction.

This is totally unacceptable service from the bank. It's not as if they never have to deal with a payment from the USA FFS!

IME the financial services company I work for is more bothered by threats of FOS than the media, I think partly cause FOS will be more interested in the case and also because it costs the company money if the case goes to FOS, even if the final decision is in their favour or at least agrees that their resolution was reasonable and fair. I've known customers of my company to get a better deal simply by threatening to go to FOS (don't get me started on treating customers fairly...) so I advise anyone to threaten it when complaining but know your rights so you don't sound like a loon! Basically you can go to FOS if it's unresolved after 8 weeks or if you're not happy with the company's resolution. The company is obligated to tell you this and I know mine does but from personal experience of other companies it could be in the small print

Thanks Turnip, that's useful advice.

OctoberNights it's a cheque drawn in USD from a company called SunTrust. This is basically the balance of the Life Insurance Policy her Mum had.

(She knows I'm posting, btw!)

I think it is a a 'wrong' bit of paper moment, and that happens, but it's the reponse from them now about that, that's causing her issues. She does have the receipt.

Thanks Turnip - I'll tell her to mention it, but she doesn't have 8 weeks to resolve this. The money should be cleared for her this week, and that's when all the balances for the wedding are due.

At the moment, this is threatening her entire Reception, because everything has been booked through her Venue, and whilst she has the money to cover the original bill, she doesn't for the 'additional' stuff and it's all on one bill, now.

She would never have booked things without being assured of four weeks, at most and, while I agree it was perhaps a little silly to rely on money she didn't actually yet have, she only did so because she trusted them at their word.