A&L faster payments - not working?

scottishblondie

... but £200 to another account hasn't gone by FP :mad: I'm starting to think this account isn't worth the interest!

ddma

I also thought that by using the Faster Payments system with Alliance & Leicester that it would help us get some fast cash to our son who is away on holiday and running short of cash. We now know (by finding out the hard way) that the money will take 4 days to go into his account due to "additional security measures". Why don't they make this clear when using the system? Here is the reply I got in response to my email message to them....

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

Payments will be sent using the FPS providing the following criterion are met:

1) The maximum daily limit of £250 must not be exceeded

2) Only one payment per day, up to £250, is allowed to the same bank sort code and account. For example if you make a payment of say £200 then make an additional payment of £20 to the same bank sort code and account, the first will be sent using the FPS but the second payment will be sent using the Bankers Automated Clearing System (BACS)

3) The payee bank must be able to receive Faster Payments

4) The first payment to any new recipient (new sort code and account number) will be sent as BACS regardless of the value as a security measure.

As this was the first payment to this payee the last rule applies here. If a payment is sent using BACS, this will take four working days, not including weekends or Bank Holidays, to reach the payee’s account.

You can make daily payments to different banks and these will be sent using the FPS, but the above criterion must always be followed.

I do hope you find the above information useful, however, if 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

--Original Message--

Please urgently provide me with the status of a payment I made yesterday to my son's RBS account for £50.00. As a member of the Faster Payments scheme I was led to believe that the payment would be made into his account straight away but it is still not in his account. It would have been quicker for me to drive to a cash machine and then pay it into his account on the high street. The RBS say that it should take no longer than 2-3 hours! What has gone wrong with you system? Can I make fast payments or not?


So much for progress!!!!!

Mrs_Ryan

Me and Mum had a ding-dong with them about this. They tried to fob Mum off but then me (ex-Abbey employee and still quite disgruntled about it :rotfl:) got onto them and told them firmly I wanted a proper answer and this is what they came back with.

Apparantly, some accounts have gone to Santander and some havent. This is to do with where the account was opened and some such rubbish. Me and Mum both have A&L accounts, Mum's Premier 50 opened in Newcastle and registered to her address up there has apparantly gone to the Santander system, whereas my (you wouldnt believe this would you) Current Account opened at a branch about 20 minutes away from A&L's head office in Leicester and registered to my Leicester address, hasnt. Therefore the £15 that she sent me and OH as a gift went by BACS. This took two days and about £15 worth of phone calls to discover - after being told 'well transfers of over £250 wont go by FP' :eek: well, duh, I told you it was only £15! and also from someone looking at my account and clearly seeing the transfers going back and forwards every month between Mum and me, that 'first time transfers wont go by FP!'

So there's your answer. If your account hasnt been migrated it wont go by FP! This is craziness to the extreme as I can send money to my mate's Abbey account by FP, and she to me! :eek:

brit76

I am in the process of moving fom Santander and one of the reasons is that I can't send faster payments which is a pain as I pay several people at the month as this makes it much easier and quicker.

I tried transferring a small amount to Halifax, who I know accept and also send faster payments and it took 3 days to reach the account. i repeated this and again took another 3 days.

DizzleUK

Faster Payments is one of the reasons why I am leaving A&L/Santander. A £250 daily limit is pathetic and far too restrictive. My new Barclays account will allow FPs of up to £10,000!

Milarky

The answer may seem to be to set up as many payees as possible (eg multiple bank accounts under your control) and send £1 min to each straight away. After one day the payment can be sent by Faster Payments method - unless more time is actually needed by A&L to 'verify' receipt of the first payments. It's also just occurred to me that they wait a day even to send a BACS - thus the 'slot' is allocated for at least two days and you must wait until the day after tomorrow to use the FP system. This is a dreadful implementation on Faster Payments. Which other banks use BACS the first time? It seems that they are simply the worst example of banking 'discombulation'. And there would appear to be no 'redress' to this except voting with your feet.

ERICS_MUM

Blimey it sounds like A&L accounts are being migrated to the Santander computer system on a staggered basis by sort code. Recipe for disaster.

I believe the Nat West accounts were moved to the RBS system all at the same time - the big bang approach and I have never noticed any reduction in service or functionality on my accounts.

flipdee

Hey there, I had the same problem and by the way it seems A+L doesn't fall under the "Santander Faster Payment" rules as stated on the fp website.
I would recommend sending £1 immediately to all your accounts that you wish to use the faster payments system with, then all further payments up to £250 shall be sent using FP.

I'm not 100% sure if it's £250 per transaction or per day, however I am very glad to say that they allow more than one payment per account per day.
Previously the A+L system wouldn't let you send more than one payment to the same account in one day.

This is all due to the migration over to the Santander computer system, all payees are treated as new and the first payment is treated as a non faster payment.
On the migration note, my wifes A+L internet banking has been migrated over but only 1/3 of the accounts actually work!
She has been without access to her main current account or joint account for 3 weeks and today they had the cheek to ask her for her account numbers by e-mail! The FLIPPING BANK DOESNT KNOW???? Can't believe it!!!

Regards,
flipdee