Faster Payments - Money did not reach the other account same day

micim1

I bank with both Lloyds and Barclays and find it necessary to transfer money from one account to the other at various points of the month, and have been benefiting from the Faster Payments Service for some time now. I can normally make a transfer by telephone banking from either account to the other and it is received instantly.
Yesterday, at 2pm, I transferred a small amount from Lloyds to Barclays as I did not have my Lloyds card handy, tried to make withdrawal using my Barclays account and the payment was declined due to insufficient funds. I then waited the full two hours (That is the "guaranteed" within time, I believe) and tried again. Still nothing.
Cutting a very long story short I was assured by a "Supervisor" from Barclays Telephone Banking team at 4.23pm that the money had reached my account at 4.20pm, but in reality it still was not in my account by 10 pm last night, Barclays advisors cut me off twice (after around 15 minutes of holding each time whilst they allegedly went to see their supervisor to resolve this) and when I did get to speak to another supervisor I was told that the first supervisor I had spoke to must have been lying about the money having been received at 4.20pm because there was no way for a supervisor to check this! I was told I had to phone back to Lloyds to instigate a missing payment search - but Lloyds had already confirmed 3 times that the payment had left my account at 2pm on the Faster Payment system and told me it was Barclays problem.

Who is responsible for this - the issuing bank or the receiving bank?
The money appeared in my Barclays account this morning - but I had to walk 3 miles to get home yesterday because I had (in hindsight, stupidly) relied on the FPS system working as advertised and had no money on me for my bus fare and all my cash in an account I had no card for!

DrSyn

Moral of this story

"Always carry some cash, hidden away for emergancies". As Maverick the gambler did in the TV series and films.

Or you can update it "Always carry a spare loaded debt card which you only use in emergancies".


As for who is responsible I can not say. You could try putting in a formal written complaint to both banks and see what occurs. At least you would have their answers in writting, should you feel you wish to take it further. When its in black and white, they cannot later say you misunderstood or deny they said it.

[Deleted User]

Barclays systems is probably a bit slow as it can take up to the end of a working day to credit (e.g.with Metro Bank)

realaledrinker

http://www.barclays.co.uk/Helpsupport/Fasterpayments/P1242561384878

"Many of your electronic payments through Online Banking, Telephone Banking, branches or self-service Kiosks could be processed in under two hours, however could take up to 24 hours to reach the bank"

Google 'faster payments two hours' - you get plenty of 'usually', 'on most occasions' etc. Clearly not guaranteed.

pmduk

As the others have said there is no guarantee with the fast payments system.

1jim

yup, no guarantees, banks cover themselves with not guaranteed, usually within 2hrs.
There doesnt seem to be any pattern either, sometimes my transfers go faster payments, other times they dont, I have tried to get an explanation from Smile and Halifax but just get the standard "these transfers are not guaranteed" line with no attempt at working out why it didnt go

I posted in another thread recently about this and whilst accepting that the banks do not guarantee the 2hr window for transfers it would be nice if the system was consistent, reliable and did what it was supposed to. Until then they should rename it to "Faster Payments....Probably.....Maybe.....Possibly.....might go within 2hrs but could take up to 3days....but not guaranteed system" that way we would all know what we are getting and would in fairness be an accurate reflection of the system that they have

crazyguy

Normaly when moving around from one account to another via faster payment system it is stated that the normal wait is 2 hours, however at busy times when there is a lot more money being moved around from acccount to account ie:- wage day payments and so on the actual infrastructure in place to organise the money being moved is a bit stretched therefore meaning that some cases you can wait a lot longer than others.

There is not a way round this so it is just pot luck !

pmduk

I've always found that Barclays have one of the better implementations of the Faster Payments System. However, as Barclays told you the money had arrived by 4.20pm, I'd complain to them that you were unable to access it.

jen245

Or carry all your cards so you don't have to waste time trying to transfer money between accounts!

MDD_2

Morning Nice Day here in the UK.

Another grey area.

How does the Faster Payment Service work?

www.
ukpayments.org.uk/faster_payments_service/how_does_the_faster_payment_service_work/

If you look at,

7. Once the receiving bank has received the transaction, it will check that it’s for a valid account, and will send a message back to the Faster Payments Service that it has accepted the payment. Or indeed, that it has rejected the payment.

"So the Faster Payment Service would know."

Benefits for customers

www.
ukpayments.org.uk/faster_payments_service/what_are_the_benefits_for_customers/

"It allows customers to make near real-time payments over the phone or through online banking all day, every day. It can also be used to make quicker standing order payments on bank working days."

So maybe you could contact the Faster Payment Service (wherever they are) and put a trace on the transfer.


There will probably be the "under maintenance response" or some unknown situation in the small print.

pmduk

jen245 wrote: »

Or carry all your cards so you don't have to waste time trying to transfer money between accounts!

I see your point, but it's the classic 'all of your eggs in one basket situation.' I deliberately leave at least one card at home. That way, should I lose my wallet/have it stolen, I can access cash in the interim until I receive a replacement.