Online Banking Woes

[Bishop]

A mate desperately needed £1000 in their account - so on sunday I transferred (so I thought) this sum to their account

they ring me up just now - saying it is not there

I ring the bank - they say it takes 3 working days

"so I may aswell have issued a cheque then?", I retort

"no - that takes 4 working days now"

Great - just great!!!

[Russ]

Which bank was that? I've transfered money to other accounts (I'm with HSBC) online before and it's been intantanious.

[Bishop]

Originally Posted by Russ D

Which bank was that? I've transfered money to other accounts online before and it's been intantanious.

I am with HSBC and I transferred to a NatWest account

needless to say the money exited my account at the press of a button

[Nemesis]

It's only instantaneous if you transfer between your own accounts ... I believe ..

[gazzae]

Yep, it takes a long time, its ridiculous, the money could be transferred a lot faster, but then the banks would lose out on the money they can make by keeping it longer.

[Chris W]

I have found if you transfer to another account at the same bank (or between woolwich and barclays) it will be instantaneous, transferring to other banks will take between 3 and 5 days.

[nffc]

This (clearing) is the biggest con ever and the reason banks won't stop it, is they make a packet out of having it "in limbo" for a few days instead of in accounts where they have to pay interest out.

Different from when it was actually necessary physically (pre-computers) to transfer the money. Most of it IIRC nowadays is done on a computer and obviously the physical cheques need to be redistributed (or do they?) but the money is only "moved" from one PC to another, which in theory is instantaneous but the banks are con merchants.

They deserve a for it all.

Payments of this type are made using the BACS (Bankers' Automated Clearing System). This is rigged to ensure payments between banks spend several days in limbo where the banks can make money out of them instead of you. You can effect an instantaneous payment using CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System), but you may have to phone your bank to arrange this rather than do it online. And, surprise, surprise, using CHAPS costs you money.

[Bishop]

Originally Posted by nffc

This (clearing) is the biggest con ever and the reason banks won't stop it, is they make a packet out of having it "in limbo" for a few days instead of in accounts where they have to pay interest out.

Different from when it was actually necessary physically (pre-computers) to transfer the money. Most of it IIRC nowadays is done on a computer and obviously the physical cheques need to be redistributed (or do they?) but the money is only "moved" from one PC to another, which in theory is instantaneous but the banks are con merchants.

They deserve a for it all.

yes - I wrongly and naively thought that that 3 days business had gone with the advent of online banking

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

It's only instantaneous if you transfer between your own accounts ... I believe ..

With HSBC its between HSBC (and First Direct) accounts, not just your own. If we transfer from the Business HSBC account to a personal FD account it is instantanious.

The only way to move funds between banks instantly is to go into bank 1 Branch withdraw it in Cash, walk to bank 2 deposit it in cash.

Well, you can also make a CHAPS or SWIFT payment (as they do when you buy a house etc), but these cost upwards of £25 to the customer (don't ask what the bank pays, the processing fee is pennies or parts of pennies - though there is the people time involved).

[Bishop]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

With HSBC its between HSBC (and First Direct) accounts, not just your own. If we transfer from the Business HSBC account to a personal FD account it is instantanious.

The only way to move funds between banks instantly is to go into bank 1 Branch withdraw it in Cash, walk to bank 2 deposit it in cash.

yes - so I now understand - the whole thing has been turned into a farce as I only transferred the money so they could pay a bill as their wages were not paid in till today/tommorow - they gave me a cheque (which is in the process of being banked into my account) to pay the "transferred funds" back to me - they will probably end up being charged for going overdrawn paying me back the funds that never got there on time anyway

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by nffc

This (clearing) is the biggest con ever and the reason banks won't stop it, is they make a packet out of having it "in limbo" for a few days instead of in accounts where they have to pay interest out.

Different from when it was actually necessary physically (pre-computers) to transfer the money. Most of it IIRC nowadays is done on a computer and obviously the physical cheques need to be redistributed (or do they?) but the money is only "moved" from one PC to another, which in theory is instantaneous but the banks are con merchants.

They deserve a for it all.

The clearing con, is the result of batch processing which still takes place for these transactions, end of day one batch file sent to BACS, day 2 BACS process all these batch files consolidate the transactions for each bank and create new files to give to the recieving bank, day 3 recieving bank recieves this file and applies it to the appropriate accounts.

AFAIK, physical cheques are no longer moved about, the location / bank / local clearing area they are deposited in retains the cheque, scans it and processes it as if it were a bacs type payment.

The conmerchants are the ones that intentionally extend these times, Abbey was one of the worst for this.

[Bishop]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

The conmerchants are the ones that intentionally extend these times, Abbey was one of the worst for this.

The Principality building society takes 10 working days to clear a cheque

[Andy E]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Well, you can also make a CHAPS or SWIFT payment (as they do when you buy a house etc), but these cost upwards of £25 to the customer (don't ask what the bank pays, the processing fee is pennies or parts of pennies - though there is the people time involved).

i
I regularly use SWIFT transfers to move money from an account in spain to a nat west account .... takes three working days to clear , I move 700 euros once a month and it costs £3

Andy E
ntl pirate

Sadly the only way to transfer money instantly is to physically deposit CASH from one bank to another.This is the only way I can send my daughter money instantly without handing her the money.

Frankly online banking is useless to anyone but the banks.The only reason I use it is to check my account level because checking at the ATM is a waste of time as the mini statement is always seems to be inaccurate.

I so hate banks.They have convinced every institution to insist on paying wages through them and one just can't do any finances without them being involved in some way.This means that they have a virtual monopoly and I swear that they are operating a cartel.Just about every bank charges for use of ATM's now.

Dammit I used to be able to go into my bank on a Saturday but they found that an inconveniance to them(wasn't to me though).When I see how many queue up in the building societies on a Saturday I wonder how they arrived at that decision.