Blog entries tagged with "banking"

Last Friday I received two letters, this is one of them:

If you cannot see the image, it is a request that I authorise the return of funds debited to my account in error. The other was very similar, only the amount and reference number being different.

This would be for my share trading account that I have not logged into for years, I login and sure enough there is an extra $22k. Nice. Can I keep it?

There are couple of things that strike be as odd about this letter, which probably all boil down to incompetence. The big one being that there are two transactions from a company, not an individual. I wonder who screwed that up…

Some details that appear odd are that the name of the departement “Institutional Banking Client Services” doesn’t seem to come up in a search of the Commonwealth Bank website, neither does the phone number. Why is it so hard for companies to have the names of their departments match the names on their site? I had a similar issue a few years ago with NAB.

The most amazing thing is that even though they appear to be printed on normal paper, there must be some technology that will communicate back to them if I fill it in. I say this because this is all they provided. It doesn’t ask me to post the form back (no reply paid envelope included), what do they want me to do with it?

What exactly are the rules and regulations related to this? I would love to keep the money, but probably shouldn’t. Again my overall feeling about this is that it is pretty slack on their part. What is my motivation to act on this? If I remember to take the letters into work tomorrow and I find some time I will give the bank a call, but on their main enquiries number (if I can find one…) as I cannot verify that the phone number in the letter is legitimate.

The account the funds have gone into early very little interest, all that goes into it is some share dividend payments and it normally earns a massive $0.01 per month. I had to chuckle when I saw that for the past two months that had risen to $25 per month…

Update Tuesday 3 February 2015:

I called the general enquiries number of the bank, had to mash zero and hash a few times to get through the menu but got onto a person. They could see nothing (eg a note) on my account indicating that there is a recall request, they spoke to someone else and the best next action they could give me was to take the form into a branch, where they should be able to help further and I would be able to give authorisation in person instead of having to post the form somewhere. I might have time to get to a branch on Friday…

Update Friday 6 February 2015:

Just before lunch I went to the branch nearest my work. It was interesting that they had a greeter who directed you back to the the tellers or used a tablet to add you too a queue, when I showed her the letter she commented that something didn’t look right with it. After waiting for about 10 minutes I was shown through to another person who also didn’t recognise the letter, she called the number listed and there was a bit of confusion becuase I was a customer and not another institution. Once that was sorted out the requests were confirmed to be legitimate, I signed them and they were faxed through. In a few weeks I will check the account to see if the funds are still there…

Update Thursday 26 February 2015:

I got a phone call from someone confirming that I had authorized the recall of funds. I confirmed that I had, though they didn’t confirm my identify…

Update Friday 27 February 2015:

The money has been transferred out of my account, in total it earned a massive $100 interest…

A couple of weeks ago there was an unauthorized transaction on my credit card.

Good: NAB tried to call (that I missed) and then sent me a text message.

Bad: It was hard to verify on the NAB site that ‘NAB Fraud Assist’ and the number they provided was legitimate. Instead ‘NAB Defense’ is the fraud protection they promote, and I did eventually verify the phone number.

Good: The phone call to them was brief and to the point, they told me what would happen (card cancelled and new one issued, also paperwork to sign and return about the unauthorised transaction)

Bad: A scheduled transaction failed as it was on the old card. It was only on a hunch that I decided to check, the notification is buried within the internet banking. I would have expected an email or SMS, you know, like they did a few days earlier.

Annoying: Having to update direct debits to have the new card details. Though would have had to do this anyway when the old card expired in October.

Confusing: The “NAB Financial Crime – Assessment Request” that I had to sign and return having different date and amount than showed online for the transaction to dispute. Phoned up, date was difference between date of transaction and date processed, amount was due to exchange rates.

Annoying: Having to fax or post the assessment request back to them. After figuring out how to use the email to fax system at work I got got a confirmation that something identified as ‘National Aust Bank 2’ received it. Do not know if the right group got it…

Annoying: Can take in excess of 60 days to resolve the dispute and have the transaction reversed. The merchant has meanwhile credited back the amount, but I’m currently out $7 due to exchange rates and the $27 international transaction fee is still there. When it is eventually resolved all related parts will be reversed.

Bad: Being charged an annual fee on the new card because it wasn’t linked to my loan package. This was despite the letter than came with the card saying “NAB will arrange transfer of existing linked accounts, NAB Telephone Banking and NAB Internet Banking details to you new card.”

Bad: Response to my online query about the annual fee being that it was due to the card not being linked, to link it I would have to phone.

Curious: Hearing the person I spoke to on the phone get frustrated with the system as it didn’t sound easy to link the card back to my loan package.

Annoying: Having to remember to check that the annual fee has been removed by the time the next statement is issued.

Ok: Annual fee did get credited back.

Disappointing: Zero communication about the resolution about the dispute, I only know it has been resolved due to seeing in my statement the reversal of the $27 international transaction fee and a $7 miscellaneous credit to cover the difference I mentioned above.

Overall I am glad that this has been resolved, but there were various stages of the process that could do with a lot of improvement.