BACS or CHAPS?

pierrored

I need to pay a solicitor £30,000 as a deposit for a mortgage and wondered which was the best method of paying. Bank will charge me £25 for CHAPS. Maximum for BACS in one transaction is £25,000.
I am worried in case I make a simple mistake doing BACS myself even though I have been doing online banking for years.
Would the Halifax do a BACS transfer for me free?
I know it seems like penny pinching, but any advice about the pitfalls of Faster Payments by BACS would be appreciated, or should I just bite the bullet and pay the £25?

YorkshireBoy

You will almost certainly find that your solicitor will only accept a CHAPS payment.

pierrored

The letter from the solicitor says-
Please note there are different types of bank transfers.Internet transfers are usually BACS transfers which usually take 3 working days to be received into our account and then cannot be used by us until the following working day.CHAPS or telegraphic/same day transfers are therefore preferred.

CLAPTON

In my experience solicitors will accept BACS although they 'like' CHAPS

we simply made several payments by bacs well in advance

zxspeccy

Depending on who you bank with you should be able to make one or two "Faster Payments", meaning the transactions will be free of charge, providing it is being made from a personal account.

Therefore you should check with you bank to see what the online payment limits are. The three day BACS system is rarely used these days, with 99.9% of BACS going by “Faster Payments”. Be aware though that the downside of the system is once the money is sent, there is no going back. So if you send too much money or send it to the wrong details you might have some problems getting the money back. In to old days you could ask you bank to recall the money if you made a mistake, but not nowadays unless your payment is one of the rare ones that go by the old three day BACS system.

Plxply

I've certainly heard of solicitors only accepting CHAPS and having problems when the money is sent through different channels. I have no idea why, but it just seems to be the way. I would personally send a CHAPS transfer, I wouldn't want the hassle plus the fact you're paying £30,000 would make me want to ensure I follow their procedure.

catokelly

The Solicitor probably prefers CHAPS as once the funds hit their account, the funds are officially cleared funds.

Whereas with BACS, they will receive the payment on the 2nd/3rd working day, but the funds will not be 'cleared funds' until the following day (the sender can still recall the payment up to this point).

Lansdowne

Just checking this wasn't one of those old threads that re-emerges! The type of BACS payments that used to take 3 days no longer exist. The solicitors just haven't updated their documentation. Simplest to phone the solicitor and check they will accept the faster payment type.

agrinnall

Lansdowne wrote: »

Just checking this wasn't one of those old threads that re-emerges! The type of BACS payments that used to take 3 days no longer exist. The solicitors just haven't updated their documentation. Simplest to phone the solicitor and check they will accept the faster payment type.

Exactly right! I was quite tempted when I saw this thread last night to suggest switching to a solicitor who isn't living in the past, but as it's a bit late for the OP I didn't think it would help - but it might be a useful check for anyone engaging a solicitor in the future.

zxspeccy

Some solicitors do live in the past and some still refer to CHAPS payments as "Telegraphic Transfers".
Also i does annoy me that solicitors still charge £40 for making any CHAPS on your behalf, whilst only being charge between £5 and £10 by their bankers for the privelage (if processed via their online banking).

catokelly

Lansdowne wrote: »

Just checking this wasn't one of those old threads that re-emerges! The type of BACS payments that used to take 3 days no longer exist. The solicitors just haven't updated their documentation. Simplest to phone the solicitor and check they will accept the faster payment type.

Actually BACS transfers do still exist, especially if a customer is transferrring over £10,000 or if they bank with banks who are not on the Faster Payments scheme.