HMRC tax repayment - cheque / BACS ?

Ogre_De_Flamme

When one completes a return to reclaim over paid tax, if you complete your sort code and account number for payment direct, on the bank statement it appears as a cheque which has to clear.
How is this done (do they post a cheque to your branch or is there a list of central offices for each clearing bank) and why do HMRC not use direct credit or FPS?

dzug1

Sounds odd

My own refund appeared on the statement as a bank giro credit, which I assumed was a synonym for BACS

jennifernil

Last year mine appeared as if it was a cheque.

John_Pierpoint

Mine appeared two years ago, as two lots of numbers with a slash between them - I eventually sussed out that the three numbers were the code that identified the tax office handling the refund.
(funny thing everything else automatic on my statement has enough letters to indicate its origin)