Overheard in the Halifax

Fondue_2

I popped into the Halifax at lunch and overhead a member of staff talking to a customer who had been trying to pay some money (cash) into someone else's account. Apparently you are no longer allowed to pay cash into an account unless you are in possession of the card, not just the bank details. Presumably, you would also have to be the card holder, although she didn't specifically say that. But if you have a Halifax account you can now use an ATM to transfer funds to someone else's account.

I was quite suprised by this. I appreciate that there are now money laundering regs, but I am not sure what this measure is supposed to prevent? If you paid money into an innocent person's account to launder it, you would surely still need their consent to get it out? Unless you'd nicked their cheque book I suppose...

Is this common among banks now? I have fairly recently, maybe a few months ago, paid cash into my b/f's Halifax account when he has needed money for something (I am the Big Fat Financial Controller in our household ) without a problem and it used to be a godsend to me at uni when I had spent all my money on <cough> books and didn't have time to wait for my mum's cheque to clear. More recently, we got all of our cards except for one cashcard nicked in Barcelona, and we had to use the contents of that to buy new flights. If my mum hadn't been able to pay money into my account we would have spent the night on the airport floor!

Seems a little bit OTT to me.

lily_the_pink

This sort of thing is often not a hard and fast rule - so might come down to whether the counter staff knew the person, how much money was involved, whether this was an unusual transaction for the account.

It could also just be an over zealous counter assistant who has just completed some anti-money laundering training (I am being optimistic now as if this is a new rule that banks are having to implement it could be very awkward).

System

I hope thats not the case as i often pay MrJudis money into the bank. He would have to have time off work otherwise.

jonesMUFCforever

I think the gist of the matter here is that the Halifax cannot divulge any details to you of the account you are trying to pay into. This includes an account number.
So if you go in and already have the details there should be no problem but if you don't you can't pay in. This is standard for most banks.

Milarky

Might this actually be about a change in the counter service? I got a notice from Halifax lately, saying that for certain types of card based accounts the counter service was no longer available and most/all transactions were to be made using the in-branch ATMs....

[Sorry no more details. I chucked it]

Fondue_2

Hm, I think Milarky's reply might explain it, as she did direct him to the ATM. I'm pretty sure that he had the account details, so maybe he was no longer able to use the counter service on his type of account, which in itself is a bit rubbish but better than an outright ban.

jimmyjim_uk

My local Halifax had been advertising that they will not accept deposits without cards for a quite a while.

Just to clarify one thing though, my sister has deposited money into my account with my card many times.

I think one of the reasons they are stopping people depositing money without cards is because of errors. With the cards they just swipe and the account details are there. With someone dictating account details off a slip of paper there is more room for error.

wazza

what i tend to do is give them a piece of paper with the account number, the account holders name and address. if everything tallies then i pay the money in. this way any errors are minimised.