Paying a bill using Bank Giro Credit FOR FREE

pauby

I've just been to the Post Office to pay a bill by Bank Giro Credit and they wanted to charge me £2.75 for the privilege. I have never paid this way so didn't know that there was a charge.

The receiving bank is Alliance & Leicester.

I bank with the Lloyds but the reason I want to pay by BGC is that the receiver not know ANY of my bank details and if I pay through them they may be linked with it?

Can somebody tell me:

1. Anywhere to make free BGC payments (otehr than my bank and the receiving bank)?

2. There are no Alliance & Leciester branches around, and in fact I thought they had bought Girobank (is this part of the PO now?) so I can't use them as a bank to visit and pay through.

3. If I go to my bank and pay will they link my account details to the BGC?

Thanks in advance for the help.

dzug1

You could try Santander - who own Alliance and Leicester.

But I have a feeling they may still charge

Whether if you pay at your own bank it will get linked up to your own account - depends on whether they process it as a BGC (probably not) or do a bank transfer (then possibly)

Lovelyjoolz

Why not pay by postal order instead? Buy the postal orders from Post Office and send them in the post.

dzug1

Postal orders are expensive* - OP wants to do it for nothing

*12.5% of the face value, within limits.

pauby

dzug1 wrote: »

Postal orders are expensive* - OP wants to do it for nothing

*12.5% of the face value, within limits.

You beat me to the answer ...

pauby

dzug1 wrote: »

You could try Santander - who own Alliance and Leicester.

But I have a feeling they may still charge

Whether if you pay at your own bank it will get linked up to your own account - depends on whether they process it as a BGC (probably not) or do a bank transfer (then possibly)

That was my fear - they do a bank transfer instead as no doubt it will be cheaper for them.

opinions4u

Here you are online.

Do you have online banking? Could you get it?

Why not pay the bill in a 21st century way?

notts_phil

You are wrong.

If you pay by BGC at your own bank with cash the cashier will stamp it and send it as a bgc.

pauby

opinions4u wrote: »

Here you are online.

Do you have online banking? Could you get it?

Why not pay the bill in a 21st century way?

Please read the message. It answers your sarcastic question.

pauby

notts_phil wrote: »

You are wrong.

If you pay by BGC at your own bank with cash the cashier will stamp it and send it as a bgc.

But you will need to prove you are with that bank for it to be free and I assumed, like one of the previous poster, they woudl then link my details to it by doing a bank transfer instead, for example.

Rather than speculate, maybe I should try this.

Mikeyorks

pauby wrote: »

they woudl then link my details to it by doing a bank transfer instead, for example.

No. You're paying with a BGC payslip .... that is the way it will go through.