Money transfer to Hong Kong not visible (yet?)

leesider

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I transferred a sum of money to a bank account in Hong Kong from my BOI current account using the International Transfers facility on 365online. (It was a non-SEPA transaction).
I transferred the money on the 3 June but the account holder in Hong Kong has said it has not appeared in his account yet (he sent me a screen capture of his a/c and has offered to log in and let me view over Skype to prove it his not there).
I definitely got all the details correct when I transferred the money (sort code, BIC, a/c number) as I kept screen captures myself and checked and re-checked before I completed the transfer.
I must mention that the date I did the transfer (3 June) was a Friday and the following Monday was a bank holiday but counting all the working days from the 3 June until now amounts to nine. Surely it would have appeared by now? I rang BOI and they said if the payment was not completed successfully the funds would bounce back into my account but that could take up to ten days (that would be next Monday). They are sending out a receipt to prove that I sent the money but that doesn't prove much. Has anyone here transferred money in HKD currency (specifically from a BOI account)? I am s#####ng it because it's a lot of money and I either need what I paid for or a refund.
 
The money will almost certainly be located.

BoI would have done the transfer via SWIFT. Can BoI give you a copy of the SWIFT message? Can this SWIFT message be given to the Hong Kong bank to get them to advise as to the location of the funds?

Also, can BoI track the payment for you?
 
This will get sorted out but may take time. Chances are that the money is in a suspense account of the Hong Kong bank, or, less likely, in a suspense account of an intermediary bank. The last time a SWIFT transfer of mine got lost it was because the company I was sending it to had a trading name that was different to their legal name, and the legal name was used on their company bank account. I had specified the trading name on the transfer. It took three weeks to sort out, and the money was in a suspense account in the recipients bank the whole time. As the steward's inquiry got closer to the location of the money, it suddenly appeared in the recipients bank account.

CiaranT's advice is good. Provide a copy of the SWIFT message to your recipient so s/he can go to their bank and ask for the funds to be located.
 
Thanks for the replies. I've never heard of a SWIFT message,I'll ask BOI when I ring them.
They are sending me a receipt as I said but that is not the same as a SWIFT message . I'll report back.
 
Anyway I got what I paid for (not exactly but something similar). I haven't heard back from the guy I paid so I don't know if the money turned up or not.
 
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