House deposit - Santander faster payments or CHAPS?

KTF

The deposit for our house has to be transferred over to the solicitors on Monday and we have two options to do this:

Santander via Faster Payments as the limit is allegedly up to 100k.

To use CHAPS at Santander you have to go to a branch and supply them will all manner of documentation to prove that you are not cleaning the cash.

Nationwide via CHAPS via online banking - seems painless enough but not used before.

The money has to be with the solicitor by close of business Tuesday so in theory either of the above should work but my worry is that by sending it via FP at Santander, an internal fraud alert might get tripped and clog the whole thing up.

Has anyone actually send their deposit from Santander using faster payments and not had any issues?

grumbler

What's "cleaning the cash"?
Why does it have to be Monday, not, say a partial payment today?

IIRC, new faster payments from Santander do take longer than normal, even small ones.

onzey

Cleaning the cash presumably is a joke reference to money laundering :laugh:

KTF

Well, its only monday so there is an extra couple of days interest as half the amount is in instant access and the remainder in an instant access ISA.

By cleaning the cash I meant money laundering. The last time a friend used Santander to transfer their house deposit via CHAPS they almost refused to do it without a letter from the solicitor saying what it was for, etc.

In the end the branch phoned the solicitor to confirm that it was legit as it seems that santander err on the side of paranoia.

onzey

I've only just started with Santander and the first (test) FP for £10 to my Nationwide account went really fast, although I seem to remember, as it was the first one, getting a code to enter via my phone.

I then did another transfer for over £2000 and that didn't show for over 2 hours. I rang them and they said it was possibly delayed by the fraud department. By the time I was off the phone it had appeared at Nationwide.

Perhaps if you're doing a large sum, a phone call to them today to say what you will be doing might help. If payments are delayed by some automatic system though, I guess it won't.

ChopperST

I've generally found with Santander that new payments go straight away if you use the OTP code you get text'd. It seems to be the second payment that gets flagged for "fraud" but they said it would be there within 17 hours.

We are in the process of moving and I moved £15k from my account to my wife's Santander to FD and it took about 12 hours to clear if that helps.

KTF

I would be tempted to give the FP a go as it warns you if it wont be sent by FP...

In theory its just like any other payment although a bit larger and has the potential to be expensive if it doesnt work

Gizmo247

100K is the theoretical Faster Payments limit but for an online user account transaction it will be much lower (ran into this myself).

I recommend going into a Santander branch with ID and get the bank teller to do it for you via Faster Payments (they can transfer up to the full 100K) for free.

They will do a print out before the transaction is actioned so you can double and triple check the account details are correct.

Hominu

I'd go down to a branch with ID today and make a faster payment. Don't leave it until Monday.

KTF

I wont have collected all the funds together until tomorrow morning.

I could send it on Saturday but the solicitors are closed so I would not get confirmation until Monday so transferring it Monday AM may be better (potentially) save 2 trips to the branch?

Getting the bank teller to do it via FP is a good idea as I didnt realise they could do that.

innovate

Whatever you do, make sure Santander know before you attempt the payment. If the know ahead of the transfer, and have no fraud concerns, it will go through without a hitch.

Same applies to any bank/BS, really, and it's probably in our interest. I'd rather they make an extra check or two than have tens of £K leaving my account without my say so.