Just an update to all and to you Currencyunfair (many thanks to you for liaising with me on this, much appreciated that)
I got my money converted and into the account this morning.
On the CF system, the money had been sitting at 'In progress' for 2 days (I never had seen that status before).
Anyway, I rang CF again yesterday morning and waited for 29 mins and endured that annoying waiting message (luckily i work from home).
I got talking to a guy, Gareth, a nice lad. Instead of ripping the head of him, I just asked whats wrong. He said there is only 2 of them in the office, and CF had changed their accounts and they are inundated with calls, and its just a nightmare, understaffed etc.
He said my money (and my wife's, i asked him to check that too, i was surprised he did because of data protection - but i didn't care) had been changed and its sitting in a 'batch' to send. He didnt know why it was sitting there, but he was going to email another department to get it sent right now. And he did just that. within 2 mins I got an automatic email to say money was sent.
In stead of rejoicing straight away, I waited until this morning to see was it in the account - it arrived there at 09:45. It was 2K.
never again will i use them . cant go thru that stress again.
what's the lessons learned?
always be vigilant when using online systems, although I never had an issue with them since 2015. We have to convert money every month, maybe research the companies that convert money every year and see how they are preforming etc. Or do it the old fashion way and go cash? - I just dont have the time for that.
I started to use Wise, they use a different system where they sent the money directly in to your account and dont hold it. They seem to have far better reviews.
thanks
S