delayed chaps payment

williams74

Hello, not sure if this is the right forum to ask this question, but has anyone come across huge delays with the chaps / faster payment system before?
A family member instigated a UK money transfer from a Santander account to my Natwest Account [£100K]. The transfer was requested on Wednesday 27th April and the money left the account the next day, but it has still not shown up in my account. The sender has asked the bank on a number of occasions why we have yet to get it, firstly they said it was because of the bank holiday weekends, but now they just kep saying it will be with us shortly [on Thursday they gave us a 100% guarentee it would be with us on Friday, butit never came through ... How long can the faster payments clearing system hold onto the money before they have to either send it on to me, or return it to the sender? Any insight would be most welcome.

Many thanks..

pinkdalek

I have known it where the receiving sort code is unable to accept CHAPS payments however in these scenarios the monies are returned back to the sender the same day.

I personally would complain, you would have paid for this service, the CHAPS system is there so that payments are sent promptly and guaranteed to get there by a set deadline (generally by close of business the next working day), the other methods eg BACS, Fast Payments are not guaranteed as to when they "hit" the account.

Bank holidays are just non working days so in hindsight it would have been received by Tuesday 3rd May.

jambosans

First off, CHAPS is different from Faster Payments. The former, CHAPS, is a same day transfer, normally guaranteed before close of business if sent before a certain cut-off point. CHAPS also generally attract a fee. The latter, Faster Payments, is (for one off transfers) a real-time transfer, meaning transfers should be instantaneous. Faster Payments are generally free.

I'd take a guess and say your family member has sent a CHAPS, as the Santander limit for Faster Payments is a pitiful £300. There should be no additional clearing time, so if was sent before Santander's daily cut-off, it should have been received either by close of business that working day (or perhaps the following day), but no later. I can only surmise that something has gone wrong (obviously), perhaps incorrect details were provided? Either way, Santander should be chasing this up. That said, there's no harm in you contacting NatWest and asking to speak with the "CHAPS Team" - most banks have them, and ask them to check for an inbound CHAPS. Unlikely they will help (due to DPA), but worth a shot.

dunstonh

Are you sure its CHAPS?

Chaps is same day (not next as you say) and it arrives within 20 minutes of being sent.

It sounds like the normal clearing cycle has been used rather than CHAPs or faster payments system.

williams74

ok, thanks for all your feedback, I think I'll try my back then and see if they can help...

bengal-stripe

If they payment is as much as £100k (and I presume, you don’t receive that kind of money every day), then the bank is obliged by ‘money laundering’ and ’proceeds of crime’ legislation to check it out and see that it’s all above board.

That presumably causes the delay.

Twister84

Although CHAPS are same day payments, some banks may also have cut off times. (Natwest's is 3:15 pm). After that, then the payment is sent the following working day I'm afraid.

Even so, it they shouldn't take a week to credit the beneficiary account!


Natwest do have an Outward Payment Centre which staff can ring to get details of payments. I would go into your local branch and ask a member of staff to ring them for you.