Bank transferring money too early

[Deleted User]

Each month I set up 'one off' standing orders of varying amounts to 3 different external accounts elsewhere.

Because I object to payments 'disappearing' into the system for days at a time I always set the payments up to leave my account on either a Monday or a Tuesday so it is usually in the recipient accounts before Friday.

My bank has now starting taking the payments on the preceding SUNDAY despite my having typed in the correct weekday date it is supposed to leave my account.

Is this usual practice with other banks too?

I will name the bank - it is Smile.

But I am not Smiling about it.

Any banking people out there care to comment?

I have now raised a formal complaint.

Chadsman

I know banks can 'reserve' funds in an account when a standing order is about to be processed. When the statement gets issued does it still show funds departing on Sunday?

[Deleted User]

Yes. Funds leave the account on the Sunday.

BenL

What time do the transactions appear to go?

Banks systems run batch jobs to pull the transactions off their systems and onto tapes to give to BACS.

The system could be offline or in display only mode from certain times, it may not come up until sometime in the morning so the screens could be updated on a Sunday ready for Monday before the system comes up properly.

They will need to ensure they get the info to BACS asap.

On the other hand, incoming transaction tapes are pased to banks on a Friday afternoon for credit on Mondays. Some banks run them on Friday and display to customers what will be coming in on Monday, others wait until Sunday night.

All system work slightly differently though, e.g. Alliance & Leicester run account debits before credits where as abbey run credits in then debits.

Ben

MarkyMarkD

If you issued an instruction for the funds to leave your account on a Monday, there's no legitimate reason for the bank to actually debit the account on the Sunday.

Reserving the funds would be OK, as you are required to have the money there by close of business on the preceding working day (which is Friday), but actually deducting it from your balance on the Sunday is WRONG.

[Deleted User]

I have now had a reply back from Smile - they say the funds did not leave my account until today.

Looking at my statement of recent transactions online - that now appears to be the case.

But that was NOT what my 'recent transactions' statement showed yesterday hence my raising this in the first place.

I have been wondering about this for a while as I thought I had seen it before but was not entirely certain. So I made a point of being more vigilant and can confirm the transaction DID appear to take place yesterday and my balance was adjusted accordingly.

They say it cannot have been yesterday because it was a Sunday. (but then I know all about it being a Sunday as I set up the transactions to move out of my account on the Monday!)

I suppose I will not win on this - other than by printing out what I see in any future occurrence of this.

Rafter

Setting up one off standing orders each month seems a bit inefficient. Do you just mean transfers (by BACS) using online banking?

As long as you are happy the interest is being calculated OK, I wouldn't worry too much. As previously said it is probably just how their systems work.

Things should change in the next couple of years with much faster electronic transfers between different accounts at different banks.

R.

[Deleted User]

It probably is a BACS transfer rather than a Standing Order. The online form just calls it a 'transfer'.