Faster Payments??....only when we feel like it!!

WelshRarebit

Ok...I've just tried to send some money from a Co-op account to an HSBC account. Its a payment I make regularly and has always gone via the faster payments service. This evening however I sent £100 from Co-op to HSBC using Co-op online funds transfer and the money left Co-op instantly but did not arrive at HSBC.

Co-op payments summary screen gives payment code H for the transfer which means "Unable to send faster - will credit beneficiary within 3 working days". Ok so its gone by BACS for some reason...no problem I thought to myself, I'll just call up Co-op and have then stop the payment as it should technically not have left my account yet if it has gone by BACS.

This is where it gets interesting. Co-op customer service rep informs me that she is unable to stop the payment as it has in fact been sent via the Faster Payments system but will still take 3 days to reach the beneficiary account.

Now I thought I was fairly clued up about banking systems and that payments either go via FP and credit beneficiary within 2 hours or they go via BACS and take 3 days. So can a payment be sent via the FP system and still take 3 days to get there? According to the Co-op it can!!

ironlady2022

The answer is no. The FP system is not guaranteed, they can only confirm this once it has been sent. The 3 working days means it has been sent by bacs. I know they have a limit of £1000 per day per account and only the first payment to one particular account will go through FP system. But again NOT GUARANTEED.

blueberrypie

mayling03 wrote: »

The answer is no. The FP system is not guaranteed, they can only confirm this once it has been sent.

Not true - some on-line banking systems tell you whether your payment will go by FP or not before you send it - giving you a chance to cancel.

The 3 working days means it has been sent by bacs. I know they have a limit of £1000 per day per account and only the first payment to one particular account will go through FP system. But again NOT GUARANTEED.

You know *who* has a limit of £1k per day? The OP mentioned Co-op - according to http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/faster_payments_service/value_limits/ its limit is £2500 per day.

ironlady2022

The limit has gone up since I last worked there then - in January.

Also when I said it's not confirmed til its sent, I'm referring to the Coop online system.

WelshRarebit

Ok...there's been some development here. Got home from work this evening and checked my account to find that the £100 transferred last night has mysterously vanished as if it never happened. A phone call to the Co-op and a farely lengthy conversation with a very helpfull chap there (at first he could see no record of me ever making the £100 transfer yesterday evening) and it turns out the woman that I spoke to last night who informed me she couldn't cancel the payment as it had been sent via this mysterious 3 day version of Faster Payments had, as soon as I got off the phone to her, cancelled the payment and removed the transaction from my account and didn't even have the courtesy to call me back to say she had done this!!

[Deleted User]

blueberrypie wrote: »

Not true - some on-line banking systems tell you whether your payment will go by FP or not before you send it - giving you a chance to cancel.



You know *who* has a limit of £1k per day? The OP mentioned Co-op - according to http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/faster_payments_service/value_limits/ its limit is £2500 per day.

which bank allows you to cancel? i could use that

blueberrypie

vinh1000 wrote: »

which bank allows you to cancel? i could use that

LTSB/Halifax/BOS - there's a page telling you if your payment will go by FP or their bill payment service, and you either put in your password and submit it or click Cancel.

(Not sure if you already knew that, given the smiley, but thought it might be useful info for others even if you did!)

1jim

I find this fasterpayments thing very frustrating....mainly use smile (coop) to halifax, sometimes it goes fp others bacs, no patten to it, no obvious rhyme or reason, coop wont predict until it has been sent. I have posted about this before and Im afraid I have heard all of the statments which essentially boil down to being "Its not guaranteed" and "the banks says its not guaranteed" and even "if you wanted same day transfer you should have used chaps" and thats fine......well its not really.... I think that the banks should have a robust system that works, not some of the time, not when it feels like it, not when I do a little secret rain dance before pressing send, I just want faster payments to do what it says on the tin, all of the time. If the system has so many faults that it defauls to bacs when its raining and the wind is blowing in an easterly direction they need to invest in the system to fix it...now to be honest I dont think that this expectation is unreasonable.

agrinnall

1jim wrote: »

I find this fasterpayments thing very frustrating....mainly use smile (coop) to halifax, sometimes it goes fp others bacs, no patten to it, no obvious rhyme or reason, coop wont predict until it has been sent. I have posted about this before and Im afraid I have heard all of the statments which essentially boil down to being "Its not guaranteed" and "the banks says its not guaranteed" and even "if you wanted same day transfer you should have used chaps" and thats fine......well its not really.... I think that the banks should have a robust system that works, not some of the time, not when it feels like it, not when I do a little secret rain dance before pressing send, I just want faster payments to do what it says on the tin, all of the time. If the system has so many faults that it defauls to bacs when its raining and the wind is blowing in an easterly direction they need to invest in the system to fix it...now to be honest I dont think that this expectation is unreasonable.

I would also find it frustrating. I think you (and other posters who regularly have problems with Faster Payments) will find it is most likely to be due to the way it's been implemented by either your bank or the bank that you are trying to send to. The FP switching systems have an incredibly high availability target (probably at least 99.5%) and some of the banks have made big efforts to make their own systems approach or match that. Others, as you are finding, are not so good. I don't know if there are any statistics publicly available on success or failure of FP transactions per bank but if there aren't, and good FP service is a major factor in deciding who to bank with, trawling this forum to find those banks that don't get complained about might be a good starting point. I know RBS/NatWest is good as I worked on the system, and I suspect Barclays and HSBC are good too. I use Nationwide which is OK but has a low limit.