Internet banking (HSBC) - 'payment description'?!

apoorstudent

I'm trying to transfer my money from HSBC (who may I add, have been no more than useless for the entire 8 years I've been with them) to Lloyds.

I have all the info required... Except it's asking me to input a payment description. What is this? According to their help page, it's:

A reference number which you and the payee should recognise.

Essentially I'm sending money to myself, so... what do I put for this?! What does it mean by a reference number?

Thanks for any help!

Jay-Jay_4

You could put 'From ********' putting your HSBC account number instead of the stars or just put 'From HSBC Account'.

If you were paying say.... Your Mum or Dad (?) you could put 'From apoorstudent' so that s/he would recognise the payment.

apoorstudent

Oh, right -- I thought I needed some kind of transaction number that I'd got from the bank or something... Which would have really annoyed me, as I must have been in the HSBC about 20 times this week just trying to sort out how to log on!

Thank you.

EDIT: Okay, now I'm really confused... It says on my statement that the money I sent was a bill payment... Is this just the same as a bank transfer?

apoorstudent

oops sorry...

Mikeyorks

apoorstudent wrote:

EDIT: Okay, now I'm really confused... It says on my statement that the money I sent was a bill payment... Is this just the same as a bank transfer?

Yes - A bill payment is an 'inactive' Standing Order - that you have to trigger and put a value in and send. So it's registered the details as a permanent facility on your HSBC system (account / sort code etc) so you can re-use it, if you wish. Money goes via BACS.