Break in the space/time continuium

[Power Lunch Club]

Break in the space/time continuuum

I have suspected this for years and over the weekend the story broke on the BBC about faster bank transfer going slow.

It has been my experiance that when I write a cheque it get taken out of my account within 2 days....but pay a cheque in and it take 4 days to clear.

So if others are experiancing this, where is the money going for 2 days?
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Here is the story from the beeb.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Moneybox | Faster payments still going slow
ere

 

[Boxby]

A cheque paid into the RBS takes 3 days to clear.
A cheque paid into the BoS takes 4 days to clear.

Where's the logic in that?

 

[Power Lunch Club]

A cheque paid into the RBS takes 3 days to clear.
A cheque paid into the BoS takes 4 days to clear.

Where's the logic in that?

My point exactly....there has to be consistancy somewhere....but it just doesn't seem to be there amongst the banks.

 

[Adventurelife]

As always the banks are being very slow to get their act together.

I do 90% of our banking transactions online and we have set days for salary payments etc.

One of the effects is that some of the staff get their salary on the day I send it and others get it 3-4 days afterwards depending on which bank they use

RBS seems to be all most real time with sending to Lloyds taking the slow train!

 

[Boxby]

I love that HMR&C don't use faster payments. You think they'd be keen to get the money in.

BoS to RBS and vice versa is wonderfully nippy, I find that by the time i've logged out of one bank and into the other that the funds are already there. Lovely.

I

 

[Web Man Walking]

My business bank (Abbey) recently wrote to me to tell me it would now take an extra day to clear cheques. Because I post my cheques, e.g. posted on a Monday, it doesn't show up in my account till the Wednesday (1 day to get there, 1 day to get processed) and then 4 days to clear, Wed, Thu, Fri, Mon. A whole week for me

 

[Boxby]

Bascially, they want everyone off cheques. And these not so subtle techniques are bully boy tatics to make us do so.

 

[Power Lunch Club]

My business bank (Abbey) recently wrote to me to tell me it would now take an extra day to clear cheques. Because I post my cheques, e.g. posted on a Monday, it doesn't show up in my account till the Wednesday (1 day to get there, 1 day to get processed) and then 4 days to clear, Wed, Thu, Fri, Mon. A whole week for me

That's not going to Abbey any favours....LOL....and of course the chances are the banks from which the cheque was drawn on the money has probably left the poor businesses account within about 15 nanonseconds of the cheque being written.:001_rolleyes:

 

[stugster]

Don't get me started with Abbey.

We have phoned them on 5 separate occasions (yes FIVE!) as to why our statements aren't being delivered. Each time, they've said "ok, we'll get them delivered now for you".

The last time I phoned, it turned out that the Royal Mail had returned it as Abbey didn't have the building name on their records. As a result, a freeze was put on the account and Abbey failed to mention this to us during each telephone conversation.

We are still waiting on our statements.

Ideally, we'd just print off PDF statements online... but Abbey have "up"graded online banking so I can't even do that now.

 

[Boxby]

Is this their not so "free business banking account"?

 

[Rickwood Portpatrick]

" A cheque paid into RBS takes 3 days, HBOS 4 days to clear - there has to be consistency". Why?

Do all couriers take the same length of time to deliver a parcel from a to b?

If courier A takes longer, provides a worse service, charges more than courier B then use courier A. There doesn`t need to be legislation or a requirement for the local authorities to provide couriers services as well!

 

[Boxby]

Excellent - a man with inside knowledge!

The thing is though that all the banks are doing exactly the same thing with the cheques though aren't they?

I think that banks forget that it isn't just numbers but actually real money that people need to live on. When I used to do payroll audits i'd come across payroll departments that would make massive adjustments to peoples wages, keep altering dates that people are paid, and very casual with it all, partic with overtime and that terrible WFTC thing when paid through the payroll, "oh doesn't matter we can correct it next month" attitude. But people depend on their wages to live, and can't be doing with that kind of attitude.

The fact that the banks seem to be able to set their own timetables about when they allow you to get your money is the same kind of attitiude. If one bank can do process a cheque, clear it and pay it into your account in three days, where is the justification in another bank taking an extra day longer. It's obviously not a technology issue, so it must be lack of inclination to do otherwise.

BoS do "p" me off slightly. I wanted to open an account for each of my children and they insisted on a 45 minute appointment for each!! And then told me that I couldn't open an account in my name online and it needed to be done in branch (in another 45minute appointment) which was a blatent lie.

Banks that make their customers work hard lose customers. I just don't think they realise this.

Needless to say BoS didn't get any of those three new accounts. Wonder if the penny's dropped yet.

 

[doogie]

My personal bank drives me crazy with this.... if I transfer a couple of pound it goes by fast transfer. If I transfer a couple of hundred to and from the same account it goes the slow way..... and I need to get a security code from the wee calculator thing for each individual transfer, so doing 100 * £1 would be too much hassle!

This thread has prompted me to find out the threshold at which they (co-op bank) change between fast and slow, either by googling, asking them, or more entertainingly trial and error of random transaction values, LOL!