BACS - Electronic transfer, I thought this was free…

Designguy

Upon receiving an invoice for little under £20 I went to my local
Lloyds in Ashford to pay through BACS… However I was told by
the Lloyds advisor that the transfer fee would be £30, so made
financial sense to pay by alternative means.

Secondly, I was instructed by the company who issued the invoice,
in being a German company, to pay into Commerzbank AG (London
Branch). However Lloyds said the sort code "40-62-01" was infact
a HSBC one… And that I should… "go to HSBC, just down the road to
get it processed, perhaps for free." As it turned out I would need a
HSBC account, and was told by a HSBC representative that the fee
for the BACS would be £9… In either/both cases does this sound right?

-Regards, Designguy.

gulife

Designguy wrote: »

Upon receiving an invoice for little under £20 I went to my local
Lloyds in Ashford to pay through BACS… However I was told by
the Lloyds advisor that the transfer fee would be £30, so made
financial sense to pay by alternative means.

Secondly, I was instructed by the company who issued the invoice,
in being a German company, to pay into Commerzbank AG (London
Branch). However Lloyds said the sort code "40-62-01" was infact
a HSBC one… And that I should… "go to HSBC, just down the road to
get it processed, perhaps for free." As it turned out I would need a
HSBC account, and was told by a HSBC representative that the fee
for the BACS would be £9… In either/both cases does this sound right?

-Regards, Designguy.

Your bank is obviously getting mixed up between BACS and CHAPS.

Simple solution: If you are enrolled in Online, or Telephone Banking, then call up your bank, and ask to make a bill payment to a private account. They will take down the sort code and account number, and you can ask to make the payment using Faster Payments, or BACS. Whatever you prefer. Either way, its free to use these services.

Or, pay the bill with your debit/credit card.

Most banks nowadays do not offer any type of money transfer service between banks via your branch, for security reasons - you have to register and use online or telephone banking to do the vast majority of payments across bank accounts.

garythegreek

Quick question, had a similar issue with Natwest who said BACS wasn't an option. Basically, I have a goldmoney account, who only accept bank wire transfers. Because they are in Jersey, Natwest are telling me that they have to send the money by CHAPS!! at a cost of £23.

I have online banking, if I set up a payment online, would it go through?

gulife

garythegreek wrote: »

Quick question, had a similar issue with Natwest who said BACS wasn't an option. Basically, I have a goldmoney account, who only accept bank wire transfers. Because they are in Jersey, Natwest are telling me that they have to send the money by CHAPS!! at a cost of £23.

I have online banking, if I set up a payment online, would it go through?

Yes, you can BACS transfer into goldmoney. Set this up online yourself, or through telephone banking so you don't pay the CHAPS charge. I'm sure goldmoney use a 6 digit sort-code, so, its just like sending money to any other UK based bank.