BACS Payment - Clearing Time?

Cardinal-Red

Hi,

It's the end of my Capital One 0% period and so I transferred the exact remaining balance (totalling £3868 and some pennies) before 9am on 23rd March, from two seperate bank accounts.

Now I know there have been some bank holidays, but I assumed the three working days would have been 24th, 29th and 30th, if not also the 23rd.

However neither account payment is showing on my account and now I'm worried as I'm approaching the payment date due (tomorrow!) and nothing is showing!

Have I miscalculated here?

dougk_2

You should allow 5 working days - 3 is a bit optomistic if you have transferred by online banking..... Transfers via online banking is not the same as a BACS salary transfer for instance.

johnllew

Are you checking online - they are very slow at updating the accounts. I find it's better to ring and check using the automated system which is usually right up to date.

Caped_Avenger

I work in customer services at a bank, and we now have to advise our customers who are paying off a Capital One credit card to allow 6 working days for a BACS payment to arrive with the credit card. I.e. if i was to have arranged your payments, and sent on the 23rd (1st working day), i personally would not guarantee them arriving until tomorrow (1st April).

You are right, Capital One will have received the funds by the 30th, but they (and a worryingly increasing number of credit card providers), have started to hang on to money in holding accounts to earn them more money before applying them to your card statement.

Also, johnllew is right, they may not have updated as yet. I've found that Capital One are pretty slack in my experience.

dougk - could you explain how they are different? There's only one BACS, and any credits sent by it take the same time once they arrive with BACS. The only difference is in how long the sending bank hold onto the funds before sending, and how long the beneficiary bank holdonto the funds once received, before applying them to the specific card account.

Chadsman

I used to have a Capital One Circle Rebate Card which I closed when they cut the cashback :rolleyes: . When I paid via online banking the funds would not appear on the account until around 10am the day after they had been creditted to the CC.

Milarky

1) Did the end of the promotional period coincide with the usual 'due date' for the minimum payment? It is important to separate out the min payment because paying this even a day late can trigger a fee - whereas coming up with the rest of money a day late - whilst getting the min payment in on time only results in a day or two's interest - much less significant

2) Don't Capital One allow Debit Card payment [or am I wrong about that]? If they [or anyone else] allow this facility it is the quickest way - usually one working day - to credit your account. Having a payment taken [like direct debits also] is easier in certain circumstances than sending them yourself [i.e. the payment can't ever go to the wrong account!]

3) BACS should take two days - 'three working days' - e.g from Mon to Wed - although I had cahoot make a BT for me to Halifax which they posted on the account on 28th [Monday - a bank holiday] which arrived on 30th Wednesday - which was a day sooner than I would expect. [It is possible that 'posting/transaction' dates shown may be slightly behind the actual processing dates in these cases?]

Walletwatch

These banks sure deserve a hard kick in the proverbial... it's such a heartburn to see hard earned money from stoozing losing interest in this intervening period when banks do their bit of the stoozing in the form of earning interest on free floats of transaction money.

Especially as they don't even let me go to the branch and deposit cash at the last moment (on payment date) to ensure max utilisation of the interest free period.

Cardinal-Red

Looked today and saw that a £500 payment made to Texaco (on the same date but hours AFTER Capital One) cleared on 29th. Capital One still not cleared.

Any coincidence that this is a settling amount?

Or am I being over cynical?

M_Thomson

Cardinal-Red wrote:

Looked today and saw that a £500 payment made to Texaco (on the same date but hours AFTER Capital One) cleared on 29th. Capital One still not cleared.

Any coincidence that this is a settling amount?

Or am I being over cynical?

I bank with Smile and for my february payment to Capital One, I set a BACS payment up to leave on the 24th of February, and Capital One credited it to my account on February 26. What I have noticed is that if you check the transactions on the website that Capital One do not always update to transaction listing until a few days aftwards. E.g. The transaction showing that my payment was credited on the 26th did not show until the 28th. What I would do is call Capital Ones automated balance helpline which is normally more up to date and I am almost certain the transaction will have been credited. If you did it on the 23rd of March, I reckon with Bank Holidays they will have credited it as dated, the 30th or the 31st.

ukric

I think 2 things would largly reform banking in this country.

1. get rid of the bacs system, make everything chaps and make it free (they've done it in other countries) although I do still agree with a blanket working day before rule for credits reaching accounts.

2. An investigation into the practices of credit card companies applying credits. I wonder if they charge interest on your account whilst your money is in their 'suspense accounts'

I think the only way to get either of these to happen is to yet again be a sassy consumer.

If everyone who was charged interest by credit card companies in this situation called up and asked how much interest they had been charged (down to the day, nearest half penny if need be) then vehamently argue that they should refund this. This is because the company is not just earning the extra interest (debit) from you, but interest (credit) whilst this is going on.


Just my opinion.

Caped_Avenger

ukric wrote:

1. get rid of the bacs system, make everything chaps and make it free (they've done it in other countries) although I do still agree with a blanket working day before rule for credits reaching accounts.

You know as well as i do that this won't happen in the forseeable future though...