Why can't my solicitor use BACS to refund my deposit?

Gromitt

Polmop wrote: »

I work for a corporate and we have free faster payments

Do you use DCA FPS ? The company I work for don't get free FPs. Indeed, we are charged anything upto £10 for each one, but we can send 100K in one go.

We still have BDC for some things, but are gradually moving away from it.

InsideInsurance

Corporates are different to business banking, generally they can negotiate their own terms rather than taking off the shelf solutions like SMEs hence why you look at "Business" section on a banks site it lists tariffs but the "Commerical/ Coporate" doesnt.

Plus unless you work from home and just for the love rather than a salary then it does cost your company money

joolsybools

Two solicitors sitting on a park bench and an incredibly hot woman wiggles by. "Jesus," says the first solicitor, "What I wouldn't give to screw that one..." The second solicitor looks blank and asks, "Out of what?"

Buzby

RBS charge my business 35p for a deposit, and 40p for a Faster Payment OR BACS transfer. Do definately not free.

scarletjim

newbutold wrote: »

While you are debating this, you are losing interest anyway. I would just ask for a cheque & if they are local ask to collect it rather than wait for 2nd class post.

A BACS payment takes between 3 & 5 days where as CHAPS is faster, normally
same/next day.

Maybe your deposit is bigger than their banks limit on faster payments.

Yes I should've gone in personally this morning, never thought of that, stupid.

RE: BACS, your understanding differs from mine - I thought that most people now have BACS Faster Payment facility, meaning 2 hours (and usually 10 mins) to transfer, free. My bank is Lloyds and their's is Nat West, so surely FP is available. Whether or not there would be a charge:

What is the charge for a Faster Payment?

For personal customers there is no charge for using the service via online or telephone banking. For business customers there is no additional charge, please refer to your Service Charge tariff for full details. For payments created in the branch you will be advised of any charge before you commit to making the payment.

So no additional charge but refer to your tariff...

I know the total would probably exceed their limit, but they could do it in 2 transactions, it's not as though I'm asking for 10 transactions, hardly a great hardship is it?

Andystriker

scarletjim wrote: »

We were expecting to exchange contracts on a house a couple of weeks ago, so I sent the deposit to my solicitor as I knew I was on holiday for 2 weeks. I have returned to discover that there has been a problem at the sellers' end which may take weeks to resolve, and I want my deposit money back from my solicitor so that I can earn some interest on it.

However my solicitor is saying that they can only return it by CHAPS and this will cost ME £35+VAT. Are they lying? Why can't they just send it via BACS - that's how I sent it to them, and it was free (had to do it one transaction one day and one the next day due to daily limits, but so what, better than paying over £40 for nothing...). My bank is Lloyds and their's is Nat West if that's relevant...

No they are not lying.

A Solicitors Clients Bank Account will not have the faster payments service.

You can insist they give you a cheque free of charge, but if you want it transferred it will have to be by CHAPS, and it is the bank that charges the solicitor for that service.

scarletjim

In which case, surely the least they should have done (as InsideInsurance say above) is mentioned to me that 'if you give us this deposit now as we are suggesting, but in the knowledge that we are not quite at the stage to exchange contracts, then if anything goes wrong or there are significant further delays, there will be a charge to return that money to you.'

Annoyed that they never told me this. :mad:

Andystriker

scarletjim wrote: »

In which case, surely the least they should have done (as InsideInsurance say above) is mentioned to me that 'if you give us this deposit now as we are suggesting, but in the knowledge that we are not quite at the stage to exchange contracts, then if anything goes wrong or there are significant further delays, there will be a charge to return that money to you.'

Annoyed that they never told me this. :mad:

It will be in the Client Care letter that they gave you when they took you on as a client.

scarletjim

Really, even for refunds from them to me?

Even if that's the case, shouldn't they draw my attention to it again when special circumstances like this arise nearly 6 months down the line? Legally probably they are fine, but wouldn't you do so in their situation? If I was a solicitor I'd consider it my duty to remind someone of a cost attached to do something where it might benefit them to wait. I naively thought the solicitor is supposed to be always considering my best interests and acting on my behalf...

Andystriker

scarletjim wrote: »

Really, even for refunds from them to me?

Even if that's the case, shouldn't they draw my attention to it again when special circumstances like this arise nearly 6 months down the line? Legally probably they are fine, but wouldn't you do so in their situation? If I was a solicitor I'd consider it my duty to remind someone of a cost attached to do something where it might benefit them to wait. I naively thought the solicitor is supposed to be always considering my best interests and acting on my behalf...

It is a cost to the Solicitor charged to him by his bank. He would have put this cost in the document he gave you when you became his client. Any searches that he has done for you, will also be payable by you. He is not ripping you off and he is not ignoring your best interests.

You are asking him to do something that his bank will charge him to do. He is passing the cost onto you.

If you don't want to pay it, then ask him for a cheque.