Receving incoming bank transfer - no reference!!

borderfox_2

Hi. I receive micropayments on an ongoing basis. I give folks that make the payments a reference number to use - i.e. a recipient or beneficiary reference. However, many of them come back and say that their bank won't allow this - or doesn't give them the opportunity to do so. I have this very difficult to understand.

Are they telling me fibbs or can this possibly be the case? The latest example was the cooperative bank. I can't understand how they cannot include a reference. I am offering a small time service. If i'm having difficulty reconciling payments as a result, how the hell could this possibly work with a bigger organisation!??

Joe_Bloggs

My guess is that the payers are overwhelmed by the terminology. The payee reference is now mentioned in BACS literature as the beneficiary reference. This will help those with a thesaurus.

In the past I have put my account numbers and sort code as a beneficiary reference, when sending money to myself from different banks. I did not have a clue what I was doing. What I did was based upon superstition. Fortunately I was also the beneficiary so I could see both sides of the transaction and the silliness of my reference information.

If those on the receiving end pooled/shared their knowledge with the general public then perhaps a more foolproof way of making sure that the beneficiary reference is used sensibly would emerge.


J_B.

MarkyMarkD

At my work we have endless problems with this issue.

The problem is that Co-op Bank (and Smile which is the same thing) unnecessarily give their customers two ways to make BACS payments. They call the useless method "funds transfer" and the proper method "bill payment".

The useless "funds transfer" method is completely unnecessary, and only allows the input of a sort code and account number - with no payment reference. But it allows customers to enter their own reference for the transaction - which then appears on their statement - BUT IS NOT PASSED ON TO THE RECIPIENT.

The proper "bill payment" method allows the usual input of a sort code, account number and payment reference, which IS passed on to the recipient in the normal way.

There is absolutely no explicable reason why Co-op Bank confuse their customers in this way.

We end up with loads of payments which we cannot match with customer accounts, and the customers are very put out when we say "we didn't get a payment reference so couldn't match the funds". They say "but I put it in when I made the payment" ... and they did, but in the wrong place due to Co-op Bank misleading them.

borderfox_2

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

My guess is that the payers are overwhelmed by the terminology. The payee reference is now mentioned in BACS literature as the beneficiary reference.

This may well be - but a minority of them come back and say that they have asked to include a reference and the bank have told them it's not possible!!

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

If those on the receiving end pooled/shared their knowledge with the general public then perhaps a more foolproof way of making sure that the beneficiary reference is used sensibly would emerge.

As the person on the receiving end, I tell them EXACTLY what to include as beneficiary/recipient reference...

borderfox_2

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

The problem is that Co-op Bank (and Smile which is the same thing) unnecessarily give their customers two ways to make BACS payments. They call the useless method "funds transfer" and the proper method "bill payment"

Is it just Cooperative Bank that causes this issue - or do you have similar with any other bank?

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

We end up with loads of payments which we cannot match with customer accounts, and the customers are very put out when we say "we didn't get a payment reference so couldn't match the funds". They say "but I put it in when I made the payment" ... and they did, but in the wrong place due to Co-op Bank misleading them.

Exactly the same experience. We end up having arguments with customers - and it's very frustrating. However, now that we know what the problem is, we can tackle this in another way.

Thanks for posting - much appreciated.

samwsmith1

Having several current accounts (co-op included) I've never been to the funds transfer part of the co-op site until now, most banks only call transfers this if it's between your own accounts with the same bank.

This is different to all my other accounts as the only way to send money externally with my other accounts (First Direct, HSBC & Nationwide) is to make a bill payment.
Will post a screen shot in a minute.

samwsmith1

Here's the bill payment screen:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h119/samwsmith1/Co-Op-Bill-Payment.png
And the fund transfers:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h119/samwsmith1/Co-Op-Fund-Transfer.png

I can see where the confusion could come from.

Finally, this is the First Direct one which I think is much clearer:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h119/samwsmith1/First-Direct-Bill-Payment.png

borderfox_2

Hi all. I've got someone with RBS claiming that they cannot leave a reference with the payment. Is there anyone here that has their online banking with RBS? If so, how is this guy going wrong (as he is adamant that he can't leave a payee reference) - as he must be going wrong. I can't imagine that it's NOT possible to leave a reference.


Any insight would be very gratefully received.

samwsmith1

This is the pay a new person on my natwest OLB, which I presume is the same as the RBS interface.

So there obviously is a space to write a reference!

borderfox_2

Thanks Sam - much appreciated.

MarkyMarkD

borderfox wrote: »

Is it just Cooperative Bank that causes this issue - or do you have similar with any other bank?

Sorry I didn't see your post to respond earlier - just Co-op Bank and Smile which is really Co-op Bank by another name, and presumably has similar screens for its online banking.