Time for banks to clear money

GSD4ME

To answer some of the points raised. Most of my customers pay fairly small amounts and CHAPs transfers would not be worth it. I know cheques are a bore and I appreciate that it takes time to physically move the paper around, but I still do not see why it takes longer to clear a cheque now than it did in the 1950s.

Secondly the other mistake was NOT the customers' fault. It is an automatic transfer, she entered the bank details once, a year ago and the money goes out automatically every month, she inputs only the amount. She realised on Friday that the money had not been taken, phoned her bank and the minion in the call centre said it had gone, but she was only able to view 5 transactions on her internet banking so I had been paid, but she could not see it. That was a total lie!!

In my experience that is typical of the rubbish service you get when you phone the bank. It was only when I told her that it had not arrived and she phoned the bank again that they admitted that it was THEIR mistake. And they have the cheek to charge "service " charges.

This might be the same old moan, but there is no reason why the bank steals your money for the 4 to 5 days it takes to clear it, it can do it quicker and it is time the Government forced banks to give a real service instead of the money-making rip off they are.

You would not accept rubbish service like that from a shop or a garage so why do peole meekly accept it from their bank. To say that these are the timescales, work within them, is not logical. If you have a bill to be paid today, it has to be paid. If your bank takes 5 days to clear a cheque that is not your fault, but you are the one who suffers with late payment charges.

Tootsie_Roll

GSD4ME wrote:

This might be the same old moan, but there is no reason why the bank steals your money for the 4 to 5 days it takes to clear it, it can do it quicker and it is time the Government forced banks to give a real service instead of the money-making rip off they are. .

Err - free banking anyone ?

GSD4ME wrote:

You would not accept rubbish service like that from a shop or a garage so why do peole meekly accept it from their bank. To say that these are the timescales, work within them, is not logical. If you have a bill to be paid today, it has to be paid. If your bank takes 5 days to clear a cheque that is not your fault, but you are the one who suffers with late payment charges.

Not your fault Haven't heard that one before.

MPH80

GSD4ME wrote:

If you have a bill to be paid today, it has to be paid. If your bank takes 5 days to clear a cheque that is not your fault, but you are the one who suffers with late payment charges.

:rotfl: Oh my :rotfl:

That is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

Cos - of course - you didn't know the bill was coming and couldn't have organised to have the money in advance ... no way ... because none of these organisations that would issue late payment charges (say credit cards) send statements do they ... neither would they let you check your bills online ...

Shocking behaviour by the banks there yes indeed.

M.

GSD4ME

I would have thought it was absolutely bl***y obvious why I had not paid before, I did not have the money! Not all of us are fat-cat bankers counting our huge bonuses and quaffing champagne.

A lot of small businesses are right on the line and can only pay bills when they get paid. I do not think it is asking too much for the banks to be able to clear cheques with the speed they could summon 50 years ago.

Funnily enough, none of the people speaking on behalf of the banks (their employees I assume) have justified this ludicrous time delay or explained why it takes so long.

Clearly this is, as I said, a total scam.

Hereward

GSD4ME wrote:

I would have thought it was absolutely bl***y obvious why I had not paid before, I did not have the money! Not all of us are fat-cat bankers counting our huge bonuses and quaffing champagne.

A lot of small businesses are right on the line and can only pay bills when they get paid. I do not think it is asking too much for the banks to be able to clear cheques with the speed they could summon 50 years ago.

Funnily enough, none of the people speaking on behalf of the banks (their employees I assume) have justified this ludicrous time delay or explained why it takes so long.

Clearly this is, as I said, a total scam.

Surely the fee for late payment is less then the bank charges; therefore, why didn't you incur this rather than the charges?

If you are asking why it takes at least three days to clear cheques, here is a quick guide:

Day 0: you pay cheque into your branch. Your branch sends the cheque to its clearing house.
Day 1: Your bank's clearing house receives cheque, verifies its authenticity and sends it to writer's Bank's clearing house.
Day 2: Writer's Bank's clearing house receives cheque, verifies the amount and authorises the writer's account to be debited. Cheque is sent to writer’s branch for audit purposes.
Day 3: Writer's Bank sends your bank the agreed amount and your bank deposits this sum into your account.

As you can see there is a lot of physical sending involved; therefore any small delay in receiving a cheque extends the payment process. It could be that you bank is just covering itself by not depositing the cheque amount until five days have passed to ensure it has received the necessary funds.

M_Thomson

GSD4ME wrote:

Secondly the other mistake was NOT the customers' fault. It is an automatic transfer, she entered the bank details once, a year ago and the money goes out automatically every month, she inputs only the amount. She realised on Friday that the money had not been taken, phoned her bank and the minion in the call centre said it had gone, but she was only able to view 5 transactions on her internet banking so I had been paid, but she could not see it. That was a total lie!!

Firstly, it can't be an automatic transfer if she inputs the amount every month. Also, she must have done something wrong, if the details are correct, there is no reason it shouldn't have been sent. Maybe she is telling you porkies, because she didn't have enough money in her account on that date.
Secondly, people who work in call centres are not minions, they are people who are trying to do a days work putting up with on the whole the most unbearable parts of the British public. I couldn't do it. I don't criticise people who do.

GSD4ME

The bank I am talking about is Lloyds, not a new bank. Their staff told me it takes them 5 days to clear cheques even though, as the previous poster said it actually happens in 3 days.

The person who sent me that money is NOT lying, she had ample funds, her bank actually admitted it was their mistake. Why is everyone so keen to blame someone other than the banks?

Lastly. Yes I was harsh calling the bank staff minions, I would not like to work in a call centre either, but shouldn't they receive better training? Why do they have to lie to customers? I have found that when you speak to them they often say absoutely anything to get you off the line and this was a case in point. The money had not been paid and the staff member said it had - that is a direct lie.

westernpromise

Hereward wrote:

As you can see there is a lot of physical sending involved

And yet since the 1950s we have seen the invention of the telex, the fax machine, in the 1980s, we had the IBM PROFS system - a precursor to email. Most recently we have acquired the document scanner and the email.

Most of the delay in the clearing process appears to arise from all the archaic physical sending. If that were eliminated, which is easily possible with existing technology, we'd have next-day clearing, no problem.

The technical challenges involved in sending !!!!!! movies from one computer to another were immense, but they were solved because it was so lucrative to do so. The technical challenges of clearing cheques in a day pale in comparison, but nobody's anxious to solve them because the banks are making so much money.

MPH80

And yet since the 1950s we have seen the invention of the telex, the fax machine, in the 1980s, we had the IBM PROFS system - a precursor to email. Most recently we have acquired the document scanner and the email.

None of which would reproduce the magnetic ink at the bottom of the cheque which the systems (especially the old systems) in the bank rely on to read the numbers.

M.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I would say that if a payment has been delayed because of a banking error (as in the OP's case) then the bank should waive any charges consequently incurred, or pass them on to the errant bank if a process exists for doing so. While we can reasonably anticipate that cheques will take 3-5 days to clear, and budget accordingly, we can't be expected to predict unusual delays.