Cheating on forex?

I sold a device to a colleague in the UK and was paid in GBP's. I opened a GBP-account with Discovery where I bank, as I thought this would be a smooth transaction and I might need the funds for travel later this year.

The final amount transferred was £5479.00. The transaction was done on the 11.7.25 The lowest rate of exchange from GBP to ZAR [please note no exchange took place as the currency remained unchanged] - was 24.0557 The exact rate of exchange from GBP to ZAR at the time the transaction took place was 24.1984. The received amount declared by Discovery Bank was £5254.69.

This constitutes a discrepancy of £224.31 - if I do a buy/sell transaction on XE.com for that amount on the given date and time - the amount which SHOULD HAVE LANDED in my account is £132,583.03 at the time of transfer and if they discrepancy was taken from the lowest point on the spread (24.0557), it would have been R131,801.18

Instead of these amounts, Discovery Bank deposited GBP£5254 - which they equate to R128,597.06 - the total of £224.31 [a loss of over R5,395.93] at the lowest point on the spread, and they CLAIM that the reason for the discrepancy is because of the forex exchange amount that changed between the time Barclays UK ordered the transaction and the time I accepted the transaction.

From all the jargon above 3 things are very clear:

1. I has NO VALUE WHATSOEVER HAVING A GBP-account with Discovery Bank as they still enforce foreign exchange transactions, regardless of whether the money stays in £'s or are transacted into ZAR's.

2. Seeing that the entire transaction took place on the 11th of July and the spread amount varied from 24.0557 - 24.1984 (time of my transaction at 14:15), I should have received the HIGHER value, 24.1984 and not the lower value when the transaction was initiated.

3. There is still ZERO EXPLANATION GIVEN WHY THERE IS SUCH A HUGE DISCREPANCY BETWEEN THE AMOUNT PAID OVER FROM THE UK £5479.00) AND THE AMOUNT WHICH LANDED IN RSA (£5254.69).

Where did the £224.31 disappear to? Surely the bank is entitled to a small transaction fee - as claimed by Discovery Bank itself - 2 - 3% of the total paid over.

The *******ion in this process is that NO PROPER DECLARATION WAS MADE AS TO WHAT THE SUPPOSED EXCHANGE RATE WAS AT TIME OF TRANSFER ON THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT - £4579.00.

The only rate which was given was on the lesser amount £5254.69.

IF a mark up on the currency was taken - it certainly wasn't 2, or 3% as Discovery claims in its literature - it was 4.115% forex markup on the given figures. WHY SO MUCH WHEN YOUR PUBLISHED RATE is 2 - 3%?

I called Discovery Bank several times to talk to the customer service support. The first lady promised to call me back immediately and didn't - I called again 3 hours later and the second agent told me that Forex claimed the discrepancy was due to the exchange rate.

I'd love to know WHICH exchange rate as no funds were exchanged?????

The service is slow and unprofessional. There seems to be no DIRECT way to deal with Forex on transactions such as these and the agents who deal with the customers, can't answer the questions directly and always have to defer to another department.

What if Discovery invested in having bespoke agents in their forex department.

As things stand right now - there is, to my reckoning - still over R5400.00 missing from my account as I have NOT transacted between £'s and ZAR's. Can anyone in Forex explain how I can have GBP's and have to pay an exchage rate, when I had not exchanged ONE of those £'s into Rands?????