HSBC - Faster Payment

zonkkk

I am in the process of buying a house and I have sent 2 payments of £10,000 to my solicitors.

One of them was sent on Friday 21/01 which went through and appeared in my solicitors account on the same day

The second payment was made on Saturday 22/01 and appears in my Online Banking transactions list as a Faster Payment as well, however my solicitor says it still doesn't show up in her account.
I have also called up the bank yesterday and they said the payment went through as a Faster Payment on Saturday.

Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?

Milarky

If HSBC are saying the money is sent then get any unique reference attached to it and forward this to the solicitor. You've 'paid' and it's not really your job any more to chase it.

zonkkk

Normally, I wouldn't care, but our exchange & completion date is on Friday the 28th, and unless the money appear in her account by tomorrow we won't be able to complete. She does have the reference for the payment.

So I am trying to understand what went wrong... could it be that the payment was not sent as a faster payment even though it shows as faster payment in my account? Can faster payments be delayed for some reason or another? Could it have anything to do with it being made on a Saturday?

Any other ideas? Similar experiences?

Thanks.

izools

Probably an anti money laundering check at the recipients bank

Milarky

zonkkk wrote: »

So I am trying to understand what went wrong... could it be that the payment was not sent as a faster payment even though it shows as faster payment in my account? Can faster payments be delayed for some reason or another? Could it have anything to do with it being made on a Saturday?

IME, a faster payment can go to the 'wrong' account (because the sort code will often be correct but the eight digits a/c number could be changed by one digit, say). No, the payment must have gone via FPS if HSBC has a reference from them. And since you used the stored details of an account which has already received a first payment it was not wrongly quoted by you the second time. So the payment must have been stopped at the recipient bank.

Solicitors are useless (also IME) but it is not unreasonable for you to 'insist' she establishes the facts from her end (i.e. the same as any other member of the public hoping for a payment) using the information you have been supplied. You could also remind her that payments are never 'guaranteed' even the ones sent by CHAPS. The law really should support your position that you've paid this money and discharged the obligation.

[Was a cheque never an option?]

zonkkk

My worry is not IF she will receive this money, but IF she will receive it by tomorrow morning.
All Bank details are correct.

And I was wondering why a payment that shows up as Faster Payment in my HSBC Account, would take more than 4 days to appear in the payee's account.

A Cheque was not an option as I didn't have a cheque book last week... now I have one (ordered last week just in case) but no money in my account.

coolesticeking

If you don't send £10,000 a day as a general rule of thumb, then HSBC hold back some payments for fraud checking even though it says it's gone via Faster Payment, says it will be with them within 2 hours and also appears straight away on your statement.

Maybe they are just doing these checks?

zonkkk

coolesticeking wrote: »

If you don't send £10,000 a day as a general rule of thumb, then HSBC hold back some payments for fraud checking even though it says it's gone via Faster Payment, says it will be with them within 2 hours and also appears straight away on your statement.

Maybe they are just doing these checks?

They should be able to tell me that this is the case when I call them up, shouldn't they?

They just told me the payment went through ok through the Faster Payment service ...

coolesticeking

I can't see any reason why they would not be able to tell you as long as you pass Security..

JacksterD

zonkkk wrote: »

They should be able to tell me that this is the case when I call them up, shouldn't they?

They just told me the payment went through ok through the Faster Payment service ...

If it is an anti money laundering thing then they won't tell you. I know from personal experience that if a customer is under suspicion then the company won't tell them they are.

NFH

JacksterD wrote: »

If it is an anti money laundering thing then they won't tell you. I know from personal experience that if a customer is under suspicion then the company won't tell them they are.

Indeed and if they did tell the customer, they would be committing an offence under Section 93D of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 so they will be very careful not to do so.