Bank to bank wire transfer-time frame?

I swear, nothing about my move over here has gone easily! there's always some bump on the road..as I'm sure you all have dealt with as well... Anyway..

On December 8th, I went into my US bank(National City) with my husband to transfer $40,000 from my savings, into his UK bank(Halifax) account. He gave her the swift code, and his account information. She said it should take no more than 2 days to show up in his account and if there was a problem they usually are notified before they even finish processing, and no error showed up on her computer so it should all be fine.

On December 13th we went into his Halifax branch to ask about how long they think it normally takes, because it still was not showing up on his bank account. They said it should be there no later than Monday.

So on monday when it wasn't there, I called my banks 1800 number. They said it could take longer for international wire transfers, and to call back thursday or Friday if it wasnt here, and to call the actual branch where I transferred the money from.

I just called my branch, and they say if there was a problem with it it would have been debited back from my account already. But she would have to "call me back later" after talking to the people at their wire transfer area. I said I was in England, so she asked if she could just email me what she finds out.

My husband just called Halifax confirming the swift code was correct, and they say it is, and they are claiming they have never received the money and my bank needs to put a trace on the money..

How long has this generally taken for those of you who have done a bank to bank wire transfer of money? I am just sick over this! It just seems like its floating around and nobody knows where...and I found a house I really love and we can't put an offer in until we know my half of the down payment has reached here!  :\\\'(

I'm so sorry!!!

I've never transferred that large of an amount, but I think it usually takes up to a week for us. I would start getting mad and demanding to speak to supervisors at this point. That's just ridiculous!

Thanks for replying.

They finally figured out the swift code wouldnt work, so they put the money back into my account said and I needed to give them an IBAN number. So I gave them the IBAN for his savings account, and because the woman didn't know it ended with his savings account number, she manually put in his checking account account number(she had it from when I gave her the SWIFT code)! She emailed me and mentioned she was going to "try" doing that. Try?? Before I could call and stop her she already had, and the money is again, out of my account floating around somewhere.

Now of course with the holidays I have been sitting here worrying about it yet again. I'm going to have to contact her by phone again today! So far I have spent 10 pounds of my phone card dealing with this mess. And I told them they will NOT charge me another transfer fee to transfer it back out..she assured me they would not. She said it would come out automatically, but then she would just credit it back to me. She did credit it back to me, but I just checked my account again, and it has been re-taken out!

I just want to put an offer in on this house I want already!    This is what I get for dealing with a 20 year old "bank manager" named Sunshine!  :\\\'(

Go ahead and put in your offer! They really don't check to see if you've got the money here in the UK. (It's a very trusting system, and a very long process, at least six weeks, maybe more if there are problems or a chain of buyers and sellers. You've got paperwork from your US bank stating you've got the funds anyways, right?)

We had our offer accepted a month ago, and we are only now transferring our money over in anticipation of the contracts being ready when all the checks on the house are completed.

The two times we've wired money have each taken a day.

Sorry you've had to deal with such a twinkie.

Also, as far as phoning goes, I've always had luck with Telediscount. 1p per minute!

http://www.telediscount.co.uk/

Oh dear, we just went through this in October, and the issues you're having sound exactly like what happened to us. My dad arranged the wire of money from my US bank account to DH's account here for a down payment on a flat. It took FOUR attempts until it finally went through properly, after trying just about every permutation of SWIFT codes/IBAN/phone numbers/account numbers/sort codes/addresses until magically they stumbled upon the correct combination of numbers. I really wasn't impressed with the 'Oh, that didn't work, so let's try THIS this time' crap we got from our US bank - it was as if this was the first time this po-dunk Asheville bank was asked to do an international wire transfer, and they had NO idea what they were doing.

We also didn't want to put in the offer until we actually had the money here - my bank in the States couldn't tell us exactly how much in pounds we had! 'Oh, you'll just need to see when it gets there.' 

Gershamabob is right, however - they don't need to see any proof of the money just now, so you might as well go ahead and put in your offer. We're just three weeks from moving, and they STILL haven't asked for our money yet.

Although in this market, you'd have to be very unlucky indeed to have someone else swoop in and take it away - things are pretty much at a standstill just now, and unless they're giving it away, you're probably pretty safe!

Good luck, and fingers crossed for your offer - remember, in this market, you hold the entire advantage. If you aren't embarrassed by your offer, it isn't low enough!!