Having opened a savings account online with Tesco Bank the previous week, and armed with a brand new set of User Id, password, PIN, security number, sort code, account number, and no less than 3 memorable 'things', I decided to transfer some cash into it from my HSBC current account (online again - there isn't a practical alternative these days.)
HSBC couldn't automatically verify the payee from the sort code and account number (apparently because Tesco bank don't subscribe to the facility) so the payment was blocked as being potentially unauthorised (i.e. a scam.)
Two half hour phone calls to the dreaded HSBC Indian call centre followed, during which they asked
many intrusive questions about how I came to choose this payee, whether I was alone or under any duress from a 3rd party, and ultimately, that if I authorised the payment it could not be retrieved if it was indeed a scam.
By the end of it I was unsure about whether
any website or phone number I had been using was legitimate, and was pretty anxious about telling them to make the payment anyway.
Then followed a nervous overnight wait as the cash had left my current account and was presumably floating about somewhere in cyberspace - I rang Tesco bank to ask whether this delay was normal, and they advised that it could take up to 24 hours to appear in my savings account (it actually took 23 hours!
)
I realise there is a lot of scamming going on and banks need to protect themselves and their customers, but I can't help suspecting that international drug smugglers probably find it easier to launder the huge proceeds of their criminal activities than I did transferring a modest amount of cash from one UK bank to another.
Anyone else not
exactly a fan of online banking?