Westpac stuffs up

My funds to cover the deposit were held in two accounts. A Westpac savings account had the payout from my previous employer. I had just changed jobs while in the middle of a real estate deal. The money was from the termination payout. The remainder of the deposit was held in an offset account linked to my existing home loan, which had a cheque account facility. I wanted to write a cheque, but there were insufficient funds in the cheque account to cover the deposit. It was about $10,000 short. So, I needed to transfer some money to make up the difference.  That shouldn't be too difficult.  Surely.

That evening after work I rang Westpac telephone banking. I explained that I wanted to transfer some funds, mentioning that I wanted the funds transferred quickly. The person on the phone said there would be no trouble in transferring the funds, but advised that it might take a few days, and added that if I wanted to transfer the money quickly it would be best to visit a branch and speak to a teller. This person emphasized that the process would be much quicker through a teller at a branch of the bank. So, a visit to the bank was required. I thanked him, and made that my first priority in the morning. I was up early and waiting at the front door of my local bank branch at opening time.

There was plenty of money in the Westpac account. I asked for $10,000 to be transferred, and I provided the account details. How long would it take, I asked. Usually overnight, the teller said, but she explained that as the funds were to be transferred to another bank, they couldn’t tell me exactly how long it might take, but probably the day after next. This was remarkably similar to what I had been told by the online banking person on the previous evening. And I mentioned my recent experience of the evening before. The young teller I was speaking to admitted to being inexperienced and sought advice from her supervisor, who turned out to be a nasty piece of work.

I explained my request and passed on the advice I received from Westpac telephone banking. That’s wrong, the supervisor said, it is much faster for telephone banking to have done it for you. She added that telephone banking is always saying that. And they’re wrong, she snapped at me. She then directed me to a telephone in the corner of the bank that I could use to contact their telephone banking service if I wished.

I wonder if there was no phone in the corner of the bank and had the closest public telephone been down the street somewhere whether she would have directed me to the pubic telephone box.

I was in a bank and a supposedly experienced banking officer was offering the use of telephone banking services when there was a teller sitting across the counter from me. I found this experience bizarre. I didn’t know what to say. The stupidity was bewildering, but what really offended me was the aggressive and offhand manner of this person. This was a Westpac experience; I’d like people to know that. I suspect the funds would be transferred equally fast or slowly by either method. I declined the use of their telephone and asked the teller to continue with the transfer. I was getting fed up.

With the funds now on their way to my cheque account I wrote the cheque for the property deposit and took it to my solicitor explaining what I had done, and asked him to hold it for a while. This was on a Tuesday. The solicitor agreed not to post the cheque and contract until Friday, which would be more than ample time for my funds to be transferred and cover the cheque.

On the weekend I saw the $10,000 appear in my account. The cogs in the financial machinery were turning. The funds took longer than expected to be transferred but the money was in my account. The cheque was covered. The transfer took about four days rather than the estimated two that Westpac advised. I doubted the mail service would be very fast in getting mail to a regional area meaning the cheque wouldn’t have reached the real estate office before Tuesday. Everything was working out. Wrong!

I got a call from the real estate agent early in the week to say the cheque had been dishonoured. I apologised and said I couldn’t understand why that would have occurred saying I would look into it. I was panicked.

How could this be? Had I made a mistake? Had I misread my account statement? I was beginning to doubt myself. I felt a sinking feeling as various possibilities for what went wrong began circling my mind. I skipped work and went home where I could try and come to grips with this.

At home I checked my account again. The $10,000 was definitely there. The account total balance had gone up. The total balance was greater than the cheque I had written. No home loan payments had taken place. But a new entry had appeared: a $40 dishonour fee. How could this be?

I rang both financial institutions. Neither of them helped. Though, in speaking to some informed staff from both I got to the bottom of it. The cheque had been dishonoured because the $10,000 was forwarded with a note from Westpac instructing that a 7 day hold be placed on the release of the funds, which caused my cheque to bounce. The $10,000 had been transferred as though it had been a cheque, in which a certain time has to pass before access to the funds was allowed. The staff where my cheque account was held, very reasonably asked if the $10,000 was a cheque deposit. I said no, and they couldn’t understand why this request was made.

The staff at the Westpac telephone banking were helpful and courteous, and in particular a woman I spoke to. She was a supervisor at telephone banking. She confirmed that the funds had been transferred as though it had been a cheque. She could see from my account that the money was available and should have been transferred without a hold. She could not explain what had happened. To her credit, she deposited into my account $40 in lieu of the dishonour fee that I was penalised by the other financial institution. This was nice, but it didn’t help me pay the deposit.

The real estate agent needed the deposit without delay. Ironically, I was advised that if the cheque were to be presented again on the next business day it would have been okay. Had the real estate agent not have been so quick off the mark to bank the cheque the funds would have been available. But the agent couldn’t present the cheque again as it was still in the hands of the bank and wouldn’t be returned for a week or so. Another urgent visit to the bank was required.

I rang the real estate agent and explained what had happened. Though I doubt they would have had much interest, and may have been wondering if I were some sort of charlatan. I asked for my cheque to be returned when they got it, and requested their bank account details and made a cash deposit. It was a different bank but fortunately only a short walk from my own. My pockets were stuffed with two envelopes bulging with $100 notes to cover the $30,000 deposit. It’s surprising how much space money occupies. I was a target waiting to be robbed. Fortunately, within a short time the deposit was safely in the real estate agent’s trust account. Perhaps I should have done this first time around, but money transfers are supposed to make things easy, not difficult. I hate Westpac.

The Westpac stuff up had enraged me. On my visit to the Westpac branch I was itching to catch the eye of the supervisor who botched this. I wanted a word with her. I wanted to tell her what I thought of her and Westpac. She would have got an earful of abuse. She wasn’t on duty. And unfortunately the teller who dealt with me that morning had to wear my grumpiness. I had him count the money several times; when he finished weighing the notes on his machine (which I didn’t trust), I got him to do it again manually in a private bank office. He was irritated by my request. I didn’t care. Stuff them.