Faster Payments Transfer delayed ...

CHUCKYCHUCK

Hi !!

I'm new on this forum !
I just moved to London and i'll by staying here for 7 months (work).

I rented a house last week, and to pay the moving in fees, i used bank transfers (through my bank's web site).

I did not have enough on my uk account on thursday to pay the total amount (4700 pounds), so I:
- made a transfer of 3900 pounds on thursday which has been received the same day
- i paid the remaining amount on friday morning (around 11.30am) through a bank transfer as well.

I'm with HSBC and the estate agency is with Barclays.
Here is the problem : the 2nd payment has not been received as of friday end of afternoon.
And for some reason, during the week-end, the estate agency cannot verify if the payment has been made.

The moving-in was planned on sunday but was posponed until the payment is received, as friday evening the payment was not cleared yet.

Is that normal ? I know that in the uk, bank transfers are only a matter of hours (just before confirming the payment, it was written on the hsbc website a few minutes and up to 2 hours maximum).

But in this case, even 5-6 hours later it was not received. I called my bank who confirmed to me the payment has been sent.

Do you think it will show up tomorrow morning when the estate agent will check his bank account ?
Or maybe is it a bigger problem (maybe two big payments with the same payee with only 1 day delay is considered suspicious and was blocked somewhere ??) ??
Money can't be "lost" during a transfer right ??
Is it common that some "faster payments" tranfers arrive really really late on the payee's account ?

I don't know if this detail is important, but the two descriptions attached to the two payments differ by 1 character only:
"MOVING IN PAYMENT"
"MOVING IN PAYMENT2"

Thanks very much

ironlady2022

Firstly both banks need to work on the faster payments systems to be sent and received within the 2 hour window. Payments are not guaranteed under the faster payments scheme, if not then it will take 3 working days, in this case, possibly arrival will be Tuesday. Some banks have a limit eg max 1000 pounds or less can go under faster payment scheme. So long as you had the correct details for transfer then I would not worry too much, that's why some people prefer a CHAPS payment wich is guaranteed on the day if you send it before cut off time but it would have cost you.

Milarky

HSBC seem to 'hold' your payment after taking from your account and send it by Faster Payments a little later. All this would do, however, is account for delay of 'up to 2 hours' and it should still have arrived the same date - just as the earlier payment had.

I don't know if this detail is important, but the two descriptions attached to the two payments differ by 1 character only:
"MOVING IN PAYMENT"
"MOVING IN PAYMENT2"

This won't make any difference, but because you've paid from two different accounts check if the account number and sort-code details you've entered are still the same for both.

agrinnall

Hi Chuckychuck, welcome to MSE. I assume you've moved to London from overseas, in which case it might help you if I give a basic explanation of the types of UK payments.

1) Faster Payments - payment is made more or less in real time (usually you get the response that it's been successful in less than a minute, but the system allows up to 2 hours). Both banks need to be FP participants (which HSBC and Barclays are) and the payments have to be under the bank's FP limit (clearly in your case this should be fine as the seconf payment was for a lesser amount that the first one which went through OK).

2) BACS - this is the older payments system which takes 2 - 4 days for the payment to arrive but has less restrictions.

3) CHAPS - another instant payment system with higher limits but that has a cost to use (FP is free) and is more often used by businesses.

It does seem like for some reason the Faster Payment has been unsuccessful in your case and has been re-routed via BACS. I would have thought that HSBC should be able to see what route the payment is taking so you might want to get back on to them to check.

Milarkey is right to suggest you check the payment details but if they are correct then don't worry too much, the money should arrive, it'll just be progressing through the system for a day or two more.