On the 31st of July the ANZ bank were given instructions to transfer $150,000 from my wife's account to my CBA cheque account, the funds have been removed from my wife's account and have not shown up in my account as of today, August 9th.
These funds made up part of the funds for a property settlement on the 6th of August. We are in Ireland, I left a signed cheque with my solicitors some months ago to pay into their trust account, they would then settle with a cheque from their trust account.
I had an email from my solicitors advising me they were about to deposit my cheque into their trust account, that was the 2nd of August, was it ok. I checked my account that morning when I read the email, the $150k was not showing as funds transferred.
I called the ANZ branch to enquire about the transfer, yes they told me the funds had been transferred to my account. I told them nothing was showing in my cheque account, we then confirmed my account number.
So this guy from the ANZ, a branch manager tells me the banks work on an antiquated system when it comes to them doing cheque exchanges. Banks are pretty good, see how fast a cheque you write results in money coming out of your account, the solicitors cheque deposited on the 2nd hit my account the same day, as there were not enough funds to cover my cheque it bounced, I incurred a fee for the dishonoured cheque. The funds from my wife's account were taken on the 31st.
Fast forward, I have stayed up here in Ireland till 3am my time so I can speak with the branch, my solicitors and the estate agent. Not one prick from the ANZ bank has been able to tell me where the money has gone, they failed to even contact me despite telling me they would, I have had to call them. They have my email address but they just treat me and my wife with total disrespect by not giving us any explanation.
So has anyone else reading this post had a similar problem. Does anyone know if I have any redress against the ANZ bank for the costs I am being hit with because of the ANZ's obvious mistake, they have lost the money and really don't have any answers where these funds have gone, it's unbelievable .
Any help would be appreciated, I really would like to know what my rights are and have it followed up when I return to Australia in November, bit hard doing anything here. I have contacted the bank Ombudsmen, they asked if I wanted to lodge a complaint, big help.
