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Why can't my solicitor use BACS to refund my deposit?
scarletjim
Posts: 561 Forumite
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...
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...
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Comments
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Could they send you a cheque for free?
They may not have Faster Payments as an option.0 -
can they not refund you by using faster payments, i am sure that is free0
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Faster payments is what I was expecting.
Cheque is presumably an option, but means loses several more days interest.
I quote from their response:
"I have checked with our cashier and the "admin fee" for BACS is the same as for same day transfer (£35+VAT)"
Does this sound right?0 -
He can just sign in to online banking and send you the money for free.SwagBucks Challenge: 402/849
Updated 31/08/2012
Joined 06/07/2012
Total: £40 Amazon Vouchers0 -
Ok I've just emailed them to ask exactly why they can't use Faster Payments to do this for free - let's see what they say...0
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scarletjim wrote: »Faster payments is what I was expecting.
Cheque is presumably an option, but means loses several more days interest.
Does this sound right?
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.If my posts have random wrong words, please blame the damn autocorrect not me
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He can just sign in to online banking and send you the money for free.
No they can't. A solicitor is a business, and businesses don't get free faster payments.
They might be able to send it cheaper than £35+VAT, but a solicitor is not going to muck about sending such much per day like you did.0 -
Who, exactly, are you e-mailing...hopefully their admin support? My solicitor charges for answering emails!scarletjim wrote: »Ok I've just emailed them to ask exactly why they can't use Faster Payments to do this for free - let's see what they say...
It may be that, depending on their size and set up, they only have access to BACS Direct Credit, which is, as someone else said, a minimum of 3 days (5 if it spans a weekend).0 -
He can just sign in to online banking and send you the money for free.
Presumably it isnt a fly by night firm and therefore they have proper client account for holding the funds. In which case whilst they may well be able to do the transaction online it would not be for free - almost no business bank accounts do transactions for free.
Ultimately a firm can charge what they want for a service and it doesn't have to have anything to do with the underlying cost to them. They should really have given a rate card to let you know how much services are before you start incurring costs0 -
I work for a corporate and we have free faster payments0
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