A&L faster payments

jennifernil

I have the Premier direct account with several payees set up on it. I have not tried to make any payments before.

Today I sent £250 to each of 2 payees (Halifax and Lloyds accounts), it said it would be sent today, £500 has gone from my balance, but the actual payments are not showing on the account statement. Nothing has arrived in the receiving accounts after several hours.

Is this normal, should the £250s turn up today?

mrjam

They should, but they wont, and ill tell you why. I was told by A&L that the FP limit is 250 per transaction, but whenever ive done a payment for 250 its taken 3 days, try 249 and more often than not it will arrive same day so infact their limit is 249? i have had several arguments with them over this but their response is its gone by BACS, the end (essentially). I am NOT a fan of A&L believe me, they are terrible. Phone them and they will tell you to wait 3 days and wont give a toss. On the whole FP has been fine for me, anything under 200 goes instantly, whenever you go over that 200 mark its been totally hit and miss for years (something they fail to admit and still insist their limit is 250 - a measly sum based on most other banks 10k limits).

jennifernil

OK, I see. I will try £249 to another account then.

mrjam

Please confirm my theory! I have had this issue with them for ages. They wont accept 249 is their limit.

jennifernil

Well, I have tried £249 and it says

07 May 2010

Your payment will be processed by the next working day. Please ensure there are sufficent funds in your account when the payment is due. Please print or make a note of these details if you require them for future reference.


So what does that mean?

mrjam

Is it to the same account as you already transferred 250 to?

jennifernil

No, a different account. I have 5 payees set up, but have never withdrawn money before.

I got the same message for the £250s

mrjam

I would contact them in that case, A&L is totally hit and miss with everything, nothing is ever consistantly good or consistantly bad, theyre all over the place and dont have a clue what theyre doing, that goes for their staff and their systems. Sorry i couldnt help more, all i would say is get out while you can.

jadex

It has been said that A&L send first payment to new payee as BACS and then subsequent ones can be done as FP (max limit permitted)
also you can't do 2 transfers to the same payee in the same day

jennifernil

I see, that would explain it then as I have not made any payments before. I wish it made that clear when you try to do it! I knew about the "only one payment per payee per day" bit.

noelphobic

mrjam wrote: »

Please confirm my theory! I have had this issue with them for ages. They wont accept 249 is their limit.

I have successfully sent payments of exactly £250 on many occasions, so the limit is £250. This is obviously dependent on the receiving sort code accepting Faster Payments - there are still some that don't - but A& L can hardly be blamed for that.