Is my money safe whilst in the "ether"?

hannaht

I've transferred some money between accounts, its left one account but not yet showing in the other. Is it safe?

(neither bank is currently in the news as far as I know!)

Caudle

I am eagerly waiting to see if the money I withdrew from Kaupthing Edge (about £32k) shows up in my linked account tomorrow.

I have no reason to believe it won't but will undoubtedly go into panic mode :eek: if it doesn't!

hannaht

Hope it shows up for you I'm sure it will - I have £9k in Kaupthing but am fairly happy (I think!) to leave it there.

I just wondered who (if anyone) "protects" your money if either bank goes bump whilst the money is being transferred between the two.

silvercar

The money is never really nowhere. Once its sent it has left, at some point it will then arrive. The fact that you can't see that it has arrived doesn't mean that it is not getting there. Imagine Royal Mail with 100% confidence, once the letter is in the post box it would arrive.

My bank once sent a CHAPS to the wrong place by mistake. They told me that if the error is spotted the same banking day, the funds can be recalled. Once the banking day has finished they can't get the funds back.

puddleduck

Hi Hannah,
I posted this about the same time as you posted: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1204803

So basically, the ether is a clearing account, and it is not yet on its way to you (unless today is day 3 for you).

The system seems to rely on the money getting somewhere from this clearing account (getting to its destination or being bounced back to your account), but I don't think the system has been tested like this yet to find out whether you're still protected if it just gets stuck in the ether. Due to Icesave, this test might happen tomorrow unfortunately.