Halifax Faster Payments Saga

Milarky

Some people will recall that Faster Payments out of Halifax sometimes work (you get the 'this will arrive in two hours' prompt) and sometimes don't (the 'unfortunately on this occasion...' blurb)

The 'official' FP single payment limit at Halifax is £2500

You may also be aware that having a second (or third) current account can often get get around the immediate issue (i.e. a Faster Payment for '£X' will leave from that account even after you've been told it will take 3 days leaving from the original account)

I managed to send £1000 by FP today from account #3 (#1 stopped 'working' yesterday) I then tried account #2 for this amount - but without success. However #2 would send £100 according to the prompt.

What I did, therefore was just see how many £100s it would let me send as FPs?.... 24! It finally gave up on me for amounts of £100 - so I halved the amount to £50 - and that then worked. It then baulked at £50 - so I halved again to £25 - that was accepted - not a second time - so I again reduced the amount - to £10. Surprisingly it allowed 2 payments of this amount. Then I tried £5 (no!) so I tried £2 (yes!) - and (like the £10s) it allowed two payments of this amount.... and then it stopped working altogether...

So it appears that the Halifax security bloodhound software won't block an account entirely if you are refused a FP for an initial amount (say £1000) The 'safe' thing to try seems to be to go in for a slightly less than half the amount (£400, say, although I didn't try that) and it may allow two payments before it barks - or to go for a much lesser amount still (like £100) and it will ignore your attempts to empty your account for much longer - but it has its limits.

The final conundrum is - once your account is 'blocked' by the bloodhound how long is it before you can use it again - because in my experience with them - it can be a week or thereabouts.

This seeming lack of reason on the part of Halifax is 'unreasonable'. Whereas other banks manage to have a specified limit on FPs - and 'advertise' this on the APACS page, Halifax's stipulated limits are essentially fictional. They may be within the law - I suspect they are - but it's just plain 'stoopid' as Blackadder might say. What do they expect to 'gain' by having additional 'security' based on what one might call 'enhanced uncertainties'?
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Dagobert

This has happened to me a couple of times as well. On one occasion it took several days for the "block" to disappear. When you phone CS you just get some bs explanation that FPs aren't guaranteed and that it might be due to the receiving bank.

For the monthly £1000 shuffle, I transfer out first (using my o/d). Only when it allows me FP transfers, will I top my account to zero again, as I don't want to end up with a balance I can't get out on that day.

Do you also experience the BoS/Halifax online spin? The web interface is so sloooowww. I manage at most 5 transfers per hour. I can do about 2 transactions, then the browser throbber will spin endlessly while it is trying to load a page. Only cure: log out and log in again. Those £5 are hard earned cash.

rb10

I agree, it's getting to be quite a pain.

I imagine it will be fixed by the third week of March (big system update time), but who knows really. Could be any time.

Dagobert wrote: »

Do you also experience the BoS/Halifax online spin? The web interface is so sloooowww. I manage at most 5 transfers per hour. I can do about 2 transactions, then the browser throbber will spin endlessly while it is trying to load a page. Only cure: log out and log in again. Those £5 are hard earned cash.

My brother had this problem when he was using Chrome - he then switched to Internet Explorer and it worked fine. But it's not a Chrome issue - I use that, and log in every day with no problems. Maybe try a different browser, or re-install it to get back to the default settings.

Mikeyorks

Milarky wrote: »

The 'official' FP single payment limit at Halifax is £2500
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You've just prompted me to look at the Halifax Home page. It's new ............. and obviously designed for people who need glasses - but are resisting the temptation? The text ... is HUGE.

And far bigger than the FP limit? It did say '£2500' a few months ago ..... but that appears to have now gone and is replaced, among other things, by a bemusing statement that it will go FP if 'the payment value is lower than the limit set at the time'. That limit would appear to be via the embedded link provided to the Payment Council site which, of course, no longer shows Halifax but £10k for Lloyds.

I had a plumber to pay in 2 x tranches a few weeks ago. Both payments (above £1k ... under £2k) declined to go via FP initially ...... but were persuaded by £1k plus an immediate but separate transaction for the residue. So I suppose :

the payment value is lower than the limit set at the time

.... it really means what it says!

fizzypop

It may show £10K for Lloyds but BOS being part of HBOS shows £2500 for retail customers. But my Halifax branch is adamant that it is £5000 which has not been tested by me so far.

jackieblack

I was told by Halifax that payments under £1000 were more likely to work, but haven't really had any more success with amounts less than £1000 than I have with those over £1000, so not sure how true that is.

It seems to be a completely random thing though, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it works out of one account, but not the other and vice versa - often, if it hasn't worked in the morning, I'll try again in an hour or two and then it works - makes no sense to me.

sveika

I only use Halifax FP for under £1000 and have to say it always works a wonder. I am not aware that for over £1000 FP this could be a random thing but for under £1000, it's very reliable.

D1zzy

Milarky wrote: »

Some people will recall that Faster Payments out of Halifax sometimes work (you get the 'this will arrive in two hours' prompt) and sometimes don't (the 'unfortunately on this occasion...' blurb)

The 'official' FP single payment limit at Halifax is £2500

You may also be aware that having a second (or third) current account can often get get around the immediate issue (i.e. a Faster Payment for '£X' will leave from that account even after you've been told it will take 3 days leaving from the original account)

I managed to send £1000 by FP today from account #3 (#1 stopped 'working' yesterday) I then tried account #2 for this amount - but without success. However #2 would send £100 according to the prompt.

What I did, therefore was just see how many £100s it would let me send as FPs?.... 24! It finally gave up on me for amounts of £100 - so I halved the amount to £50 - and that then worked. It then baulked at £50 - so I halved again to £25 - that was accepted - not a second time - so I again reduced the amount - to £10. Surprisingly it allowed 2 payments of this amount. Then I tried £5 (no!) so I tried £2 (yes!) - and (like the £10s) it allowed two payments of this amount.... and then it stopped working altogether...

So it appears that the Halifax security bloodhound software won't block an account entirely if you are refused a FP for an initial amount (say £1000) The 'safe' thing to try seems to be to go in for a slightly less than half the amount (£400, say, although I didn't try that) and it may allow two payments before it barks - or to go for a much lesser amount still (like £100) and it will ignore your attempts to empty your account for much longer - but it has its limits.

The final conundrum is - once your account is 'blocked' by the bloodhound how long is it before you can use it again - because in my experience with them - it can be a week or thereabouts.

This seeming lack of reason on the part of Halifax is 'unreasonable'. Whereas other banks manage to have a specified limit on FPs - and 'advertise' this on the APACS page, Halifax's stipulated limits are essentially fictional. They may be within the law - I suspect they are - but it's just plain 'stoopid' as Blackadder might say. What do they expect to 'gain' by having additional 'security' based on what one might call 'enhanced uncertainties'?
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Much appreciated - but you need to get out more

Milarky

I've repeated this on separate days (three times in succession) now:

First payment for £1000 often works

Thereafter £1000 declined but £100 will work. This smaller amount can be repeated about 14 times before being declined.

Going to a separate account (we all have three, no?) starting with £100 works for several x £100 [possibly 10 on the a/c #2 then 5-6 on the #3]

Good news. No block has gone past 24 hours so it seems possible to resume FPs each day.

[I agree with Dagobert's approach of first taking monthly funding money out as a FP rather than putting it in and only then trying to withdraw]

Milarky

I've just been reminded of something else. A test payment for £1 was intentionally 'sent' after the BACS-only prompt appeared. It actually went as a faster payment but left/arrived the next day (just after midnight according to the C.S lady) Possibly their system does this for all 'overnight' payments to FP destinations now?

oscarhugo

[QUOTE=Dagobert;
For the monthly £1000 shuffle, I transfer out first (using my o/d). Only when it allows me FP transfers, will I top my account to zero again, as I don't want to end up with a balance I can't get out on that day.
.[/QUOTE]

But....isn't that gonna cost you £1 each time for your o/d? Thus reducing your monthly nett gain to £4. Or am I missing something...?