Faster Payments with Halifax

Munchie

I have been trying to set up a faster payment transaction from my Halifax account to my Lloyds TSB account today and it keeps reverting to BACS payment.

I need the money to be in my Lloyds TSB account by tomorrow at the latest which the BACS payment can't guarantee.

I have called the advice line and they have offered to transfer the money by CHAPS but they will charge me £25. I don't see why I should pay for a service that can be done free of charge via my internet banking.

Could an agent at Halifax do the transfer from their end or should I just keep trying to do it myself?

jambosans

Halifax's implementation of Faster Payments is flakey.

Telephone Banking can make Faster Payments, but similar to Online, cannot force through a payment via FPS. It's quite literally a "computer says no" situation.

James129

I think payments or transactions made earlier in the day normally go through faster payments system. I transfered money to Barclays and Natwest early in the morning from their rewards account and both transactions went through the fps.

Munchie

James129 wrote: »

I think payments or transactions made earlier in the day normally go through faster payments system. I transfered money to Barclays and Natwest early in the morning from their rewards account and both transactions went through the fps.

Thanks James

I have been trying to do this transaction since 9.30am and it is still not working properly.

I really don't want to have to pay £25 so I will keep trying. It is just annoying that the faster payments service is not working however if I was to pay the £25 they can do it for via CHAPS.

Milarky

Munchie wrote: »

Thanks James

I have been trying to do this transaction since 9.30am and it is still not working properly.

It's probably because you Keep trying AND ask to send too much each time. The most anyone can send is £2500 per account per day. Once they 'lock' their Faster Payments it seems to stay locked for at least one day....

The 'official' limit is £2500. But the highest I've read anyone claiming to have successfully sent as a single payment was £2000.

What I do
I have found I can send £2500 per day per account (not 100% but nearly every time now) BUT only by making all payments strictly reducing less than £1000: That is, start with £999 reduce to £998 then reduce to the daily limit balance of £503

It's per account
So if you hold more than one Halifax account you can transfer £2500 into that and then out again as separate (reducing) payments etc

The 'daily limit' seems to run for 24 hours
That is, if you sent £2500 at (say) 11am today you must wait until at least that time tomorrow before attempting to send further faster payments. This contrasts with other banks (Lloyds or RBS) where daily limits are 'reset' at the start-time of their 'working' day.

Milarky

Munchie wrote: »

I need the money to be in my Lloyds TSB account by tomorrow at the latest which the BACS payment can't guarantee.

If you mean by that "before the end of today" [10 pm in other words] I think it's a lost cause. If you have tomorrow in which to send the payment though, you need to wait at least 24 hours then try the recipe in the previous post.

Pay by CHAPS anyway and combine with a subsequent complaint?
You could agree to a CHAPS payment (but watch the time on that) if you were meaning to send less than £2500 anyway. Assuming they take the instruction to make this payment then state you want to complain about the proposed fee and ask them to waive it - pointing out the £2500 FP service is, in fact, still available (i.e. to other customers) at the time you asked for the transfer - it simply wasn't available to you because of an account-specific locking which Halifax hasn't admitted it was applying. Say that they will be able to look at lots of other accounts where FP is working perfectly to confirm the basic assertion and that, since they accepted your instruction to send this money in the first place, your inability to send the money by FP has nothing to do with 'security' considerations - so they can't use that one in their defence....

HTH

coolesticeking

As I have found since Lloyds TSB took over the Halifax..

Payments from Halifax > LTSB do not go anymore via BACS or Faster Payments but are classed as an 'Internal Transfer' "TFR".

It says it will take three days but all payments I have sent around Noon or before in the Morning have always been in my Halifax Savings/Lloyds TSB Current Account the next Morning.

Milarky

coolesticeking wrote: »

As I have found since Lloyds TSB took over the Halifax..

Payments from Halifax > LTSB do not go anymore via BACS or Faster Payments but are classed as an 'Internal Transfer' "TFR".

It says it will take three days but all payments I have sent around Noon or before in the Morning have always been in my Halifax Savings/Lloyds TSB Current Account the next Morning.

That's because they don't use BACS* for 'overnight' payments any longer (well spotted I forgot about that development) which may be helpful to the original poster meeting their deadline provided the actual cut-off for the receipt is not close of business today!

*(Presumably this is their idea of complying with the 1 Jan 2012 PSD on 'next day at latest' payments. It's still a cheek though because they are essentially 're-routing' a Faster Payment instruction into the next (working) date - thus using the system to 'retard' payments - not what the PSD intended I submit.)

coolesticeking

Milarky wrote: »

That's because they don't use BACS* for 'overnight' payments any longer (well spotted I forgot about that development) which may be helpful the original poster to meet their deadline provided the actual cut for the receipt is not close of business today!

*(Presumably this is their idea of complying with the 1 Jan 2012 PSD on 'next day at latest' payments. It's still a cheek though because they are essentially 're-routing' a Faster Payment instruction into the next (working) date - thus using the system to 'retard' payments - not what the PSD intended I submit.)

Indeed, If I need the money I now have to do a FP to NatWest and then to Lloyds TSB..

Bit of a pain I guess, should just happen without having to do all this but only takes under a min so can't really complain - Not easy I guess if you don't have another account elsewhere to do this.

pinkdalek

Munchie wrote: »

I have been trying to set up a faster payment transaction from my Halifax account to my Lloyds TSB account today and it keeps reverting to BACS payment.

I need the money to be in my Lloyds TSB account by tomorrow at the latest which the BACS payment can't guarantee.

I have called the advice line and they have offered to transfer the money by CHAPS but they will charge me £25. I don't see why I should pay for a service that can be done free of charge via my internet banking.

Could an agent at Halifax do the transfer from their end or should I just keep trying to do it myself?

Problem with Faster Payments is across the whole banking sector, you tend to find different banks will have different maximum limits. I personally have never had a problem when sending monies from Nat West, however with Halifax I have noticed anything more than £1000 tends not to go via the faster payment option. However a simple workround is to send it in multiples eg £2500 send as 2x £1000 and a £500.

The other thing to consider though is faster payments are only guarateed if both bank's sort codes accept them and send them, plus the system at both banks needs to be online.

It may not be of use now but by Jan 2012 all external bank transfers must reach their destination by close of t business the next working day. Lloyds Banking Group have said this will happen with their customers by November.

jennifernil

I find Lloyds to Halifax works better than Halifax to Lloyds. Lloyds can do up to £10k by FP, Halifax tend to baulk at even £1k. I just keep trying, and usually it works eventually.

But I agree, the Halifax FPs are rubbish.