Fund transfer timescale Vs Interest?

mal79

It is that time of the month where I am settling bills, transfering money to pay off credit cards and so on. This month I have noticed something unusual...

I mostly bank with Halifax (Current A/C, Credit Card) and regularly have to transfer funds to my wifes non-HBOS account for bills in her name.

So tonight online I whizzed funds to her A/C by "immediate payment" where it shows in her account in 2 hours. Funds duly disappear from my A/C... Then I transfer funds from my Halifax Current A/C to my Halifax Credit Card and it tells me that it will take TWO DAYS for the funds to make it to pay off my card!

I can only assume that HBOS will offer fast payments out of the account when it suits them in terms of interest earned. Surely the process for transferring funds is exactly the same, so the blatant delay in moving the funds is pure money making on their part.

Is MSE or anyone campaigning on this issue?

Mal

456789

Direct debit from Halifax is instant to their cards I think

rb10

A direct debit will go instantly, but you can only choose for this to be for the full amount, or minimum repayment. Those people who want to do something in between have to do manual payments.

The problem here is that the Halifax credit card (like most credit cards) doesn't accept faster payments yet. I'm sure someone will give a reason why credit card providers aren't implementing the system very quickly.

jambosans

rb10 wrote: »

The problem here is that the Halifax credit card (like most credit cards) doesn't accept faster payments yet. I'm sure someone will give a reason why credit card providers aren't implementing the system very quickly.

From experience HBOS credit cards are the exception when it comes to accepting Faster Payments. Every other credit card company I've dealt with do accept Faster Payments. Obviously I couldn't quote you numbers, and base this purely on personal experience, but if the holding account sort code accepts FPS, then it should work.

In response to the OP, it does state to leave 3 working days for bill payments on the back of your credit card statement. If you make a payment after 6pm or on a non-working day, the earliest it can be sent is on the second working day via BACS. For example, a payment made via Telephone Banking at 13:00 on Monday, will leave Tuesday, and reach the credit card on Thursday (on a 3 working day BACS cycle). After 18:00, the payment would leave Wednesday, and reach the credit card on Friday.

On a side note (and I have no idea if this is correct), my best guess as to why it takes so long is if the payment goes via BACS, this suggests the sort code is for a specialist type of account (e.g. business or legacy), otherwise it would transfer internally - remember BACS is an external service. That suggests the non-Faster Payments enabled Bank of Scotland sort code where the payments are sent, is a legacy or specialist type of business account.

All that said, I wish they would hurry up and implement FPS.

mal79

jambosans wrote: »

On a side note (and I have no idea if this is correct), my best guess as to why it takes so long is if the payment goes via BACS, this suggests the sort code is for a specialist type of account (e.g. business or legacy), otherwise it would transfer internally - remember BACS is an external service. That suggests the non-Faster Payments enabled Bank of Scotland sort code where the payments are sent, is a legacy or specialist type of business account.

All that said, I wish they would hurry up and implement FPS.

CC is a personal account started Jan 2008. It just seems bizarre that HBOS can move money to external organisations quicker than it can to its own accounts. Though by the sounds of it with HBOS being an exception to the rule, that is another death knell for my relationship with them

jambosans

mal79 wrote: »

CC is a personal account started Jan 2008. It just seems bizarre that HBOS can move money to external organisations quicker than it can to its own accounts. Though by the sounds of it with HBOS being an exception to the rule, that is another death knell for my relationship with them

Oddly enough, I setup a bill payment to my BoS CC (from my BoS current account), and it dated like a BACS (i.e. the following working day), however it transferred to my credit card the same day it debited (much to my surprise). Both my bank account and credit card statements reflected the same date. However BoS still state it takes three working days. Perhaps an early implementation of FPS; perhaps when made via Online between two linked accounts the transaction pre-dates but still goes via BACS; or perhaps it's the luck of the draw? Regardless I still allow four working days before payments are due.