Bank Faster Payment System warning/con?

hailsham

I recently made an online payment to Barclaycard from my HSBC account. This was done on 24th July, the due date was 25th July..

I have now received a new statement from Barclaycard saying that the payment was not received and charging me £12 late payment charge.

I immediately checked my bank statement and found that the payment was cleared on 25th July, i.e on the due date. I immediately phoned Barclaycard, who informed me that they did not receive the payment until 29th July.

It would appear that the money was transferred from my bank account to Barclaycard's main account and then held there over the weekend before being actually allocated to my Barclaycard Account.

So much for Faster Payments!

Another underhand way of making money!

Obukit

When you make a payment through HSBC they (should) tell you when the payment will clear, as this is checked straight away. Most of the time this is under two hours but sometimes this is not possible if the system at the sending bank is down - did you make a note of when HSBC said the payment would clear? If they said straight away I would put in a written complaint to Barclays as this seems to be their fault if they had the money from HSBC but didn't bother to transfer it into your account.

Faster payments do normally work, however, because it's a new system there's bound to be a few glitches. You just need to make sure they're not penalising you for their mistake!

JimBlizz

IIRC payments to credit cards don't use FPS (yet?)

jonesMUFCforever

I agree with Jim - until such time as it tells you on the back of the statement that they accept faster payments then it will still take the 3 days or so with BACS to go from one bank to another.
Unless Barclaycard refund as a gesture of goodwill OP cannot have any cause to complain.

eslick

barclays will have had the funds on the 25th they just took the extra time to put it on to your account. I would ask them to check which suspense account it was sitting on at their side for the 4 days and ask them to refund the money if they then say they didnt get it until the 4 days ask your bank for proof of credit, this will show that they did have the funds in time. Then show this back to Barclays and they I dont think can really argue with you.

hailsham

My records show that the money left my account on the 24th and was in Barclaycard's main holding account the next day. I am complaining about the fact that they then took from the Friday to the Tuesday to actually credit this to my Barclaycard account.

The time to transfer between banks has reduced to virtually zero, it's the time taken within the receiving bank which has not reduced. Do they turn their computers off over the weekend to give them a rest? I think not!!

[Deleted User]

hailsham wrote: »

My records show that the money left my account on the 24th and was in Barclaycard's main holding account the next day. I am complaining about the fact that they then took from the Friday to the Tuesday to actually credit this to my Barclaycard account.

The time to transfer between banks has reduced to virtually zero, it's the time taken within the receiving bank which has not reduced. Do they turn their computers off over the weekend to give them a rest? I think not!!

Well, payments aren't processed over the weekend..

Doesn't sound like a con to me, it sounds like you didn't leave enough time to pay your bill. They still state on their website and the statement you get each month that if you are paying through online banking to leave 4 working days for it to be credited.

Until they distribute a mailing saying that due to faster payments you can pay your bill the day before, I wouldn't chance it..

In addition, the sort code 20-04-15 cannot accept faster payments anyway.

Milarky

Barclaycards dedicated bank sortcode 20-04-15 does not accept Faster Payments according to APACS

http://www.apacs.org.uk/sortcodechecker/

this should be as no surprise to people

I just tried to create a bill payment to Barclaycard from HSBC. When you go through the 'pay an organisation' route and are about to send the money it is clearly advised by HSBC that payment to the account will take '3 working days'

(people just need to read these things...)

Paul_Herring

hailsham wrote: »

The time to transfer between banks has reduced to virtually zero, it's the time taken within the receiving bank which has not reduced. Do they turn their computers off over the weekend to give them a rest? I think not!!

The banking and credit card arms of the banks are not as closely tied together as you're assuming.

FP, where implemented, only applies from bank account to bank account.

FP does not apply from bank account to credit card, no matter how much you think it should.

If you really want same-day transfer, you should set up a direct debit to pay the minimum amount off. The funds are received the same day they leave.

This will also prevent you accidentally getting late charges (unless the DD bounces of course,) since any late payment caused by the DD will not be charged for - it is the calling bank's responsibility to claim it in time, not the customer's.

YorkshireBoy

hailsham wrote: »

My records show that the money...was in Barclaycard's main holding account the next day.

Could I ask how you *know* this? Is it simply because HSBC said/assumed so, because I wouldn't have thought you had access to the Barclaycard collection account to check?

I am complaining about the fact that they then took from the Friday to the Tuesday to actually credit this to my Barclaycard account.

In effect, you're complaining that Barclaycard have done exactly what they said they'd do on the reverse of your statement.

It's very dangerous to make assumptions when making financial transactions, as you have found to your cost.

Good luck (in trying to get some goodwill from them).

hailsham

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Could I ask how you *know* this? Is it simply because HSBC said/assumed so, because I wouldn't have thought you had access to the Barclaycard collection account to check?

The amount was shown as cleared the HSBC account. On thinking about it, that xoulds just mean that HSBC had grabbed the money, put it into one of their holding accounts over the weekend and then sent it to Barclays on the Monday or Tuesday.

What is interesting is that an internet payment from a Natwest Bank account to a Marks and Spencers &More credit card all went through on the same day. M&S also use Barclays collection account.

As an aside. About 25 years ago I worked for one of the big building societies, before they became "banks". A member of staff went to visit a supplier to open an account. The supplier said, " I'll have to take up references. Who do you bank with?" The BS employer took the man outside into the street, pointed up and down the street to all the bank branches and said, "Take your pick"!