Faster Payments - Is it working?

Steve_xx

Some 12+ months after the introduction of the Faster Payments Service it seems to me that this scheme in general is a dogs dinner.

I have realised that Alliance & Leicester will only process amounts of £250 on the Faster Payments service. Even worse is the fact that they will only allow one such transaction through the Faster Payments Service per day from an account.

Maybe we ought to have a list here of banks/building societies and their modus operandi in respect of faster payments. Are these banks dragging their feet and holding onto our money, or is there valid concern about the possibility of fraud?

Perhaps you would like to add your thought and experiences here?

G_M

Not sure how up-to-date it is, and it's a bit hard to find, but there's been a thread on this since June last year. It's here.

Really needs a sticky.

masonic

Steve_xx wrote: »

I have realised that Alliance & Leicester will only process amounts of £250 on the Faster Payments service. Even worse is the fact that they will only allow one such transaction through the Faster Payments Service per day from an account.

You mean 'one such transaction through the Faster Payments Service per day to an account'. There is apparently no limit on the number of £250 payments you can send per day to different destinations from one A&L account. I've sent £1500 in one day.

There's a good rundown of the situation at present here.

Steve_xx

masonic wrote: »

You mean 'one such transaction through the Faster Payments Service per day to an account'. There is apparently no limit on the number of £250 payments you can send per day to different destinations from one A&L account. I've sent £1500 in one day.

There's a good rundown of the situation at present here.

They sent me an email, as follows:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the Faster Payments Scheme.

Like other banks, we are implementing Faster Payments in stages so our transaction limits could be different to those advertised by the Scheme at any given time, as could the type of transaction applicable for Faster Payments.

Whilst we have started sending single immediate payments of up to £250 by this method, payments may sometimes be delayed due to occasional fraud checks. Only one Faster Payment per day can be sent from an account at present.

Please be aware that any payment not sent by the Faster Payment method will transfer via BACS (Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services) which may take up to four working days to reach the payee’s account.

We do hope you find the above information useful, however, should you have any further questions or need any more help, please visit our ‘Help’ section online or contact us again.

Kind regards

Customer Services
Alliance & Leicester plc

Steve's resposne:

Thanks for your reply. This is absolutely appalling service given the fact that the Faster Payments Service has been in existence for 12 months. This is a positively archaic way for a bank to conduct its business. Please tell me when you propose to offer a proper banking service whereby reasonable amounts of cash can be moved fast.

Alliance & Leicester's response:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the the Faster Payments Service.

I should explain that the Faster Payments Service is an industry wide service to speed up payments but in doing so we have to coordinate it with the rest of the financial industry. At present we are limiting the amount that can be transferred but we hope to increase this limit as soon as possible.

If you have any further questions or need any more help in the meantime please do contact us again.

Kind regards

Customer Services
Alliance & Leicester plc

Speculator

I use Tesco Internet Saver and have manage to send £10,000 per day to my Newcastle 5 yr Bond over the past 3 days.

masonic

Only one Faster Payment per day can be sent from an account at present.

If that really is the case now, then it's only come in very recently. I opened 3 Halifax reward accounts back at the beginning of February and I've been funding them with £1000 per month using funds from A&L by making 4 x £250 faster payment transfers (to the three accounts and one savings account) on the 1st of each month. I'll be very annoyed if I find I can no longer do that come August.

Jonbvn

I would agree that most banks/BS are dragging their feet over FP's, claiming it is due to fraud prevention. I honestly do not believe for one minute the veracity of this argument. After all, who would believe any banker ever again?

Steve_xx

There has been some further email tennis between myself and A&L. You can see the detail in post #4.

For what it's worth this all started when I made several transfers of £250 from A&L at 2am on Wednesday morning. I was alarmed when none of these payments appeared to have arrived at their destination by 2pm yesterday. At that point I emailed A&L to ask why. However, when I logged in to the destination accounts at 11pm yesterday I noted that the funds had arrived. Therefore the transactions took some 20 hours to complete. I wonder if it happened as a result of the combination between my emails and the fact that they were relatively small amounts, and had I not complained would the transfers have not completed as they did?

Stompa

Faster payments - what's that? Despite having accounts with probably more than a dozen different providers, I've yet to experience a faster payment.

pinkpong

masonic Would you kindly explain how did you se it up with Halifax?
I have A&L to Halifax set up fine. But I just can`t find how to add the A&L on the Halifax account page. I would like to send money from Halifax to A&L.
Any help, please?

chris1

G_M wrote: »

Not sure how up-to-date it is, and it's a bit hard to find, but there's been a thread on this since June last year. It's here.

Really needs a sticky.

Yes, I keep it up to date - anyone know how it gets to be a sticky?