Best way to transfer £25000 into my egg account

Walletwatch

Hi

Bank with Citibank, and have tried to transfer money into my egg account with small amounts first, but a message came up on my egg online banking that 'The issuer refused the transaction. Please arrange to make a BACS transfer'

Have now decided to go the transfer route, and am deciding between BACS and CHAPS. Citibank does say they'll do a BACS in 3-4 working days, so intend to do it via BACS on Monday. (Till then, the money is sitting in my Citi esaver @4.5%, not bad, but not as good as the 5.5% in egg either)

Will this transfer definitely take place in 3-4 days, or is it normal to have delays beyond that time period? Assuming it takes four days, I lose £12 by way of interest, and Citibank charges £25 for a CHAPS transfer.

Should I still go for a CHAPS transfer anyway, and take the £13 differential hit, for the sake of peace of mind for four days is a question I am asking myself. Pls advise me on:

1. Likelihood of the BACS taking more than four days to egg

2. Any alarms being raised for a reasonably high amount being transferred.

johnllew

BACS usually takes 3/4 working days so if you're going to use this method, I suggest you initiate the transfer on a Monday so you don't extend the period of lost interest by havng a weekend in between.

Have you tried debit card payments in lower amounts on consecutive days? That might get you over the problem.

Milarky

Walletwatch,

As johllew suggests, the amount of transfer might be the problem with the debit card method. Just try £1 first and if that works increase the amounts to be transferred.

Second, remember that the debit card acts instantly on your 'available balance' so that the amount you propose to move must either be covered by an authorised overdraft or else the funds must be moved into the current account just before transfer [I seem to recall you had some problems with Citibank 'double counting' withdrawals or not immediately offsetting a withdrawal by a credit made]

Third you could test the time of transfer by sending £1 [say] via BACS from Citibank on a Monday anyway - although you will then be waiting until the following Monday to follow up with the main transfer.

Finally, you could use a direct debit to Egg. The downside is that although it involves no loss of interest [or maybe 1 day if you have to move the amount into the bank account ahead of time] it takes 10 working days to make a withdrawal from the point of setting up. [You could make the transfer 'One off annual' and then cancel it afterwards]

Walletwatch

Thanks guys

I started off with £25, and the first transfer went through. I immediately tried £9000, which did not go thro' then retried the same amount and got rejected again. Then tried £3000 and then £1000, the last of which actually set up a hold on my account, but did not transfer the amount.

In all cases, I ensured there were enuff funds in my account to cover the transfer amount. Will have to try it out of my Halifax or Abbey accounts I guess, and see what happens.

Tks for the responses though, will do it via BACS I guess, and keep you posted on how it goes.

Tx a lot

Walletwatch

Having been into banking for seven years now, I must admit though, that the sequence of steps I took would have reeked of money laundering, while it was actually the system having played games with me when I attempted the transfer. The guess I hazard here is that the system has detected this as extraordinary activity, and hence disallowed all transfer attempts beyond a certain point for that reason.

Unbelievable_2

walletwatch

when I transferred £22000 to Egg from IF I did it by debit card, three consecutive days (because debit card limit is £10000). The money shows up instantly in Egg whilst still sitting in IF. Not sure how Egg calculate interest on this but it looks pretty! ;D

Walletwatch

Unbelievable

Mate, don't rub it in... am already feeling pretty bad abt banking with Citibank, which seems to be the reason for these txns not going thro'. I did expect it to work exactly the way it did for you :'(

johnllew

Have you asked Citibank to stop refusing the debit card transactions? Can you perhaps arrange individual clearance with them immediately before trying again?

Unbelievable_2

Sorry walletwatch! Didn't mean to rub salt in...

Ever thought about moving your current account??? ???

mary

Once again I've been down the same road as Unbelievable. I've transferred £30k by direct debit from Lloyds to Egg. You just have to do £10K at a time on 3 consecutive days. It shows up immediately on your Egg account.

Walletwatch

No, Citibank says it cannot do much, as these approvals are given out of elsewhere (I think they don't even know if these are automatic, or with manual intervention)

Yes, this adds to the list of the reasons for me to change my main current account.