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IBKR SWIFT payment to me delayed several days - anything I can do?

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Dangerous Fish

Pilots the Millennium Milkfloat
Supporting Member
Jul 21, 2016
2,753
6,718
UK
I'm relatively new too IBKR so I'm hoping someone more experienced can help.
On March 28 I made a withdrawal from my IBKR account for a substanctial amount of money (6 figures).
The SWIFT payment to my bank still hasn't completed (6 working days and counting).
All other recent withdrawals I've made from my account have completed the next working day.
I'm sending secure messages to support regularly asking for an update but all I'm getting back is "Please be informed that we are still waiting feedback from our bank and we will provide further information as soon as we receive it."
My receiving bank won't help as they have no visibility of the transfer.
Is there anything else I can do?

ETA, the payment just landed in my bank after 7 days. It's not so much the delay as the lack of communication which is concerning, but live and learn I guess?
These days, I'm finding it's great to have money, whether it's in stock or cash, but getting to that money can be a real PITA!
 
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I can only tell you from my experiences (over 10 years with IB).

Transfers via SEPA are quickest. 'Small' amounts are quicker than large sums. 100.000 Euro was always small day or next day. Larger amounts need more checks and internal approvals.

Then there are differences depending on the authorization system used. Digital Security Card+ works best for me.

I suggest you transfer 100.000 or less until you are familiar with the systems. Use an account that IB is familiar with. It should be in your name. That is the quickest.

Hope that helps.
 
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I guess that may be one of the reasons but a £100k transfer went through next day shortly before this one.
I don't have a SEPA option, only BACS or SWIFT but that must be bacause it's going from US to UK presumably?
 
I'm relatively new too IBKR so I'm hoping someone more experienced can help.
On March 28 I made a withdrawal from my IBKR account for a substanctial amount of money (6 figures).
The SWIFT payment to my bank still hasn't completed (6 working days and counting).
All other recent withdrawals I've made from my account have completed the next working day.
I'm sending secure messages to support regularly asking for an update but all I'm getting back is "Please be informed that we are still waiting feedback from our bank and we will provide further information as soon as we receive it."
My receiving bank won't help as they have no visibility of the transfer.
Is there anything else I can do?
I have problems with about one in 10 transfers from my ETrade account to my bank in Australia. I was also treasurer of a non-profit that did lots of wire transfers. My experience is that they often fail silently, and it takes about a month for the auditors to realize something went wrong and return the money (less fees and exchange rate variation), and even then they don't bother telling you.

One thing that I did learn for myself is never to transfer the same amount in quick succession. Something in SWIFT assumes the second transfer is a duplicate and silently deletes it. I took to putting a sequence number in the low order digits, so I might transfer $50,001 one day and a few days later $50,002. If you transferred the same amount as the previous one, this might be biting you.

I have to say, cutting Russia off SWIFT is probably the nicest sanction :) .
 
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I assume that is known, but it seems what transfer options you have available from IBKR is based on the currency you are transfering. I tried to setup withdrawels in $ but my bankinformation was never accepted to the biggest bank in Norway. Exchanging to Euros I can du a SEPA transfer and those seems to work within 1-2 bank days. Though my biggest transfer has been in the 20k range. So perhaps changing to Euros and transfering to your UK bank in Euros? (Keep in mind any exchanges of currencies takes 2 days to settle, in spite of it looking ready immediately).
 
I have problems with about one in 10 transfers from my ETrade account to my bank in Australia. I was also treasurer of a non-profit that did lots of wire transfers. My experience is that they often fail silently, and it takes about a month for the auditors to realize something went wrong and return the money (less fees and exchange rate variation), and even then they don't bother telling you.

One thing that I did learn for myself is never to transfer the same amount in quick succession. Something in SWIFT assumes the second transfer is a duplicate and silently deletes it. I took to putting a sequence number in the low order digits, so I might transfer $50,001 one day and a few days later $50,002. If you transferred the same amount as the previous one, this might be biting you.

I have to say, cutting Russia off SWIFT is probably the nicest sanction :) .
My previous withdrawals were different values so I don't think it's that, but the 'silent fail' is a bit concerning.:oops:
Agree on Russia. Isolate them completely is the best way forward.