Why dont banks process things on Saturdays/Sundays?

JuicyJesus

nidO wrote: »

It's a good example of the anachronisms built into the system though. FP's are instant(ish, usually) at weekends but will still have their statement date as the next working day rather than when the transaction actually happened and will be considered "uncleared" funds until the next weekday.

That's not the case with all banks. Indeed most treat an FP in at the weekend as cleared straight away.

Wyndham

Archi_Bald wrote: »

If you were working in IT, you would understand why downtime is sometimes unavoidable, or the most economic option.

I have worked in IT, and yes, I do know about downtime. I also know about providing services to your customers out of 9-5 Monday to Friday (with the support that requires).

To go back to a banking example, cash machines work 24/7/365, and can you imagine the outcry if they didn't?

opinions4u

Wyndham wrote: »

To go back to a banking example, cash machines work 24/7/365, and can you imagine the outcry if they didn't?

It is a few years since I was accountable for ATM availability.

But when I was they were unavailable for 15 minutes every night without fail.

They also needed servicing on a daily basis too, which took around 10 minutes.

Not to mention loading cash which took longer.

So no ATM I ever worked with was open 24 hours a day.

*Kat*

I received a cheque for selling my shares. I was trying to figure out what day I'll receive the money in my account, and with the xmas holidays etc it's like 2 weeks away.

And yes. I work in IT, and I do think it's something that should be viable in 2014. AND I don't think we should have to pay for it either. I think that the banks earn enough profit to make this a service for their customers.

antrobus

*Kat* wrote: »

I mean, it's almost 2014...everywhere else is still open!!!

Why dont banks process things on Saturdays/Sundays?

Because their customers haven't demanded that they do.

Note that (1) the fact that they don't, doesn't bother a lot of people; and (2) the customers that really matter would be the likes of Global Consolidated plc and not you.

gt94sss2

*Kat* wrote: »

I received a cheque for selling my shares. I was trying to figure out what day I'll receive the money in my account, and with the xmas holidays etc it's like 2 weeks away.

http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/cheque_and_credit_clearing/cheque_checker/

And yes. I work in IT, and I do think it's something that should be viable in 2014. AND I don't think we should have to pay for it either. I think that the banks earn enough profit to make this a service for their customers.

Well, they don't. I think each cheque already costs over a £1 to process - and that price is going up as the number of cheques issued is falling fast.

As has been said, cheques (useful as they are) are several hundred years old. Why do you think the banks tried to get rid of them a couple of years ago before being blocked from doing so?

Regards
Sunil

opinions4u

*Kat* wrote: »

I received a cheque for selling my shares.

Did the firm selling your shares not offer a more modern way of paying you?

And yes. I work in IT, and I do think it's something that should be viable in 2014.

Banks, quite rightly, have green forced into spending a huge amount implementing Faster Payments to enable the quick movement of money. So moving money from A to B already happens.

AND I don't think we should have to pay for it either. I think that the banks earn enough profit to make this a service for their customers.

Would this be the banking industry that has lost tens of billions of pounds in the last give years?

Somebody has to pay for it. Either the individual user or the wider customer base of the banks through inferior interest rates and fees.

I've not deposited a cheque in to my current account for 18 months. I lose if the industry spends stupid money on trying to turn the cheque processing system, which is used less and less, into something quicker.

But something quicker already exists. Faster Payments. Why waste money making cheques quicker too?

I don't see a need for it just because you've not fully budgeted for Christmas.

*Kat*

opinions4u wrote: »

I don't see a need for it just because you've not fully budgeted for Christmas.

Wow. I started this thread to start a discussion on it, not for people to make incorrect assumptions.

No, they didn't offer me an alternative method, otherwise I'd have taken it.

I just don't understand why we still have "working days" for bank transactions (direct debits included).

Paul_B.

To me there's an even more interesting situation going on at RBS. They process Tuesday-Saturday. So you create a scheduled payment to leave your account on a Monday, come 6.30PM on Friday this payment disappears online, no pending list of transactions, it doesn't appear on the statement either. Essentially it has gone missing for 2 days. Even worse is that at 6.30PM every working day if you wanted to cancel or amend a payment you had scheduled you're clean out of luck, contrast this with Nationwide where you can cancel or amend the payment right up to midnight.

I do agree, there needs to be come consistency in this. As you've seen above there is two banks with wildly differing processing times and subsequent flexiblity in their IT systems. Maybe it's just that RBS need to move from the 1960's.

opinions4u

*Kat* wrote: »

I just don't understand why we still have "working days" for bank transactions (direct debits included).

Because change would be expensive, deliver only minor benefits to a small number of customers and lumber the banks with a huge cost that delivers no commercial benefits.