Bank Giro Credit -what is it ??

willo65

rb10 wrote: »

When you pay in at Halifax they don't manually create a BGC, or anything like that. Once they've swiped the card and entered the transaction on the system, it just goes straight into the account, so no need for bits of paper flapping about - just the receipt, which goes to the customer.

It strikes me as strange that you would need to fill one in when you pay money in. Do the banks that still use them (for paying into personal accounts) not have a fully real-time system (such as the one Halifax has), and so they need the bit of paper to process at the end of the day? Or something like that? I don't understand the point of them, unless other banks have outdated computer technology that doesn't have the facility for swiping a card, and real-time update.

RBS do but if you are paying in cheques or cash and cheque together then the system will print one.

rb10

willo65 wrote: »

RBS do but if you are paying in cheques or cash and cheque together then the system will print one.

But why? What's the point of it? Presumably RBS's computer system records all the cheques that you pay in, so why is a scrap of paper needed as well? And what happens to it after it's printed? Does it just get filed away in a cupboard?

Sorry for all the questions, I just don't have a clue what they're for!

BruceyBonus

I wondered the same as rb10 when I was in HSBC a little while ago. The cash was credited to my account instantly, but I still had to complete a BGC slip.

peter999

rb10 wrote: »

It strikes me as strange that you would need to fill one in when you pay money in. Do the banks that still use them (for paying into personal accounts) not have a fully real-time system (such as the one Halifax has), and so they need the bit of paper to process at the end of the day? Or something like that? I don't understand the point of them, unless other banks have outdated computer technology that doesn't have the facility for swiping a card, and real-time update.

Maybe thay are just the convenient way nowadays to clearly show how much you are paying without having to say it out loud in a bank in a transaction between customer & cashier or without having to discuss it at the counter.

They also have all the payee account details so you can use the BGC in any bank.

Any place where you say how much money you are carrying around with you to pay-in could lead to criminals targetting people.

peter999

willo65

rb10 wrote: »

But why? What's the point of it? Presumably RBS's computer system records all the cheques that you pay in, so why is a scrap of paper needed as well? And what happens to it after it's printed? Does it just get filed away in a cupboard?

Sorry for all the questions, I just don't have a clue what they're for!

The BGC and the cheques go off together to voucher processing so the know which account to credit the cheques to but after they have done that im not sure what they do with them.

rb10

willo65 wrote: »

The BGC and the cheques go off together to voucher processing so the know which account to credit the cheques to but after they have done that im not sure what they do with them.

Interesting ... in Halifax they just print the details of the account to be credited on the back of the cheque and then just the cheques are sent to be processed, no additional paperwork.

I prefer the Halifax way, as I am NOT a fan of wasting paper. You must get through hundreds of these slips of paper in a day. How many trees is that?!

willo65

rb10 wrote: »

Interesting ... in Halifax they just print the details of the account to be credited on the back of the cheque and then just the cheques are sent to be processed, no additional paperwork.

I prefer the Halifax way, as I am NOT a fan of wasting paper. You must get through hundreds of these slips of paper in a day. How many trees is that?!

But if you have someone paying in say 150+ cheques thats a lot of time spent printing on the back when you just print one credit slip to cover all of the cheques for that one account.

peter999

Just realised that normal bank pay-in books are Bank Giro Credit slips.

Also the BGC slips may be used for tallying the cash & tills.

peter999

jambosans

rb10 wrote: »

It strikes me as strange that you would need to fill one in when you pay money in. Do the banks that still use them (for paying into personal accounts) not have a fully real-time system (such as the one Halifax has), and so they need the bit of paper to process at the end of the day? Or something like that? I don't understand the point of them, unless other banks have outdated computer technology that doesn't have the facility for swiping a card, and real-time update.

Lloyds TSB require you fill in a pay in envelope, even when handing in over the counter. As a direct result (unlike my BoS account) funds do not always clear instantly into the account. I agree, seems bizarre.

Extant

rb10 wrote: »

Interesting ... in Halifax they just print the details of the account to be credited on the back of the cheque and then just the cheques are sent to be processed, no additional paperwork.

I prefer the Halifax way, as I am NOT a fan of wasting paper. You must get through hundreds of these slips of paper in a day. How many trees is that?!

Yes, it's a system that I'm sure works fantastically for the Halifax - being that they are, relatively, a small institution and won't handle significant numbers of cheques on a day to day basis - which is probably why you have those bags for business customers, no?

The process of endorsing each cheque falls apart very rapidly when you have a business that pays in 50+ cheques and you have customers waiting behind them.

It is not unusual for the largest Barclays branches to process over 2,000 cheques a day - you could not realistically do that for each customer as Halifax does.