Receiving international payment :- mistake with swift/bac

wbafanclub12

I am hoping to expect an international bank transfer, but thanks to a mistake by my bank and myself, I had to set it up online but am not sure I am going to get it. Basically, I have got the swift/bic code wrong.
It was night and I needed by swift/bic code. I looked upon the Halifax website which told me to use the swift code BOFSGB2S. This is apparently the bank of scotland head office in scotland. I did not realise there was a separate bic code to this and thought they were the same thing. It turns out my bic code is along the lines of HLFXGB******

I also gave other details which were correct, i.e my IBAN, bank name, bank account number, sort code, name, address etc.

My question is that as Halifax is bank of scotland, with the iban number and account details, should they be able to find the right account? I am only able to contact the company sending the money by email and they have probably already sent it.

Thanks for any help

jonesMUFCforever

No you need to contact the sender with the right details.
Be prepared to have to pay his costs (or you would have to if it was me!)

agrinnall

For once I think jones may be wrong, but only because the OP may also be wrong. The Halifax website section on receiving international payments states the following, so I would say that the information provided to the sender was correct in the first place:




Transfers to your Halifax account can be received in foreign currency or sterling. Payments received in foreign currency are converted into sterling and credited to your account. To ensure your funds are received as quickly as possible you must instruct the overseas bank to send funds via SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication).
There are three things the overseas bank should know so they can process the transfer as quickly as possible:

1. Where to send the money to. Quote Bank of Scotland, Glasgow with the swift code BOFSGB2S
2. The name of your bank. Quote Halifax and the BIC code which you'll find at the top-right hand corner of your Halifax statement
3. The beneficiary account which is the account the money is going to. You'll also need to include the IBAN number for your account which you'll find at the top right hand corner of your Halifax statement

http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/international-payments/

baby_frogmella

First Direct 's BIC is MIDLGB2172O (ie ends in letter O NOT zero), however my medical insurance company in Belgium accidently put zero at the end instead, yet i still received the funds in my FD account on time. The most important thing is that the IBAN must be correct.

wbafanclub12

Thanks for the reply's so far. The problem was that I read somewhere that BIC and Swift were the same. So, if the payment does managed to get processed, it will get sent to the main Bank of Scotland branch in Glasgow. From what I gather they then use the BIC as an international sort code to find my branch where the money will be deposited.
I am just hoping that because Halifax is part of the Bank of Scotland, they will recognise the IBAN and sort code and account number I have sent and post it through. I have read on parts that without the full information then it may take a bit longer. I am hoping this is the case rather than going through having it returned, sent again... and charged as said before.
I have scoured the net looking for examples of people this may have happened to before so if anybody does have any please post good or bad news.

agrinnall

Sorry, I also got mixed up by not reading properly what you wrote originally. So did you not provide the Halifax BIC at all, or did you repeat the BoS Swift code? I think there should be enough information for the money to get to your account, but it's likely to be rejected by automated processing so would need some manual intervention to get routed correctly. I don't know whether HBOS will do this or just reject the transaction back to the sender. If it does get through it will probably take a day or two longer to reach you.

Have you been able to confirm that the money has been sent yet? If it has then you'll be in limbo until either it arrives or the sender tells you it's been returned.

Jones, I retract my previous statement, you are in fact (as usual) correct.

wbafanclub12

Well, I am really happy. They could only have posted it yesterday, and despite me not including a bic code, it has gone through.

I will say entirely this was my mistake. However, the one part of the online form I filled in for this transaction was Bic/Swift. I dont know whether I was supposed to put my **********/********* in that format, or whether they did just want either or.

I phoned up halifax international this morning, and the woman said there was no real difference between the swift and the bic. I explained about the website swift and the bic code and in the first instance she advised I use my Bic. But then in the second sentance she also said that they still used the old swift code so it should not be a problem.

Anyway, I have my money, so thank goodness there is no limbo for me. I will be very careful next time to read the words carefully, although I do think the halifax website could have been clearer as that is what got me confused.

I also found a yahoo question on somebody who did the same thing but did not get an answer except to phone their bank and ask about it so I cannot imagine I am the second to do it, nor would I be the last. So I finish this post hoping that one day it might stop somebody going through the worry that I have had to go through.

Thanks guys!!!

dazza.mk

Theoretically the BIC isn't 100% needed so there is less of an issue if there is an error here.

EU Legislation already has plans to phase out the BIC altogether:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2012-0037+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN#BKMD-9

agrinnall

Thanks for letting us know, good result for you and good news for anyone else who might make the same mistake.

jonesMUFCforever

Confused now - so I was wrong and right and wrong again LOL LOL.