First Direct Suspended Faster Payments

masonic

Lately I've been getting the following message when I try to send payments from First Direct in the afternoon / early evening:

We are unable to send this payment today. Would you like the payment to be sent tomorrow?

The first time this happened, it was for the first payment to a new recipient. I figured it was a security measure and waited until the next day. When the payment still hadn't gone that morning and appeared to be frozen in the system, I tried deleting it and sending a new one, which went through immediately.

That was last week. I've just attempted to send another payment to the same recipient and am getting the same message. The same is happening with a second account. Both payments were for a few hundred pounds. Interestingly, I tried a test £1 payment to a third account and it went through fine.

Not a big deal, although a little frustrating as I'm expecting to have to cancel both payments tomorrow and resend in order to get them to execute if my previous experience is anything to go by.

Anyone else experience anything similar?

agrinnall

The fact that one payment has been successful means that they haven't suspended Faster Payments (although on re-reading your thread title I now suspect you may mean individual suspended payments rather than the whole service). What are the banks for the receiving accounts? It sounds to me like an issue at the other end rather than at FD.

And have you rung them to ask them if they have an explanation? Given their reputation (deserved in my experience) for great telephone customer service it would seem to be a more sensible thing to do first than ask on here.

masonic

agrinnall wrote: »

The fact that one payment has been successful means that they haven't suspended Faster Payments (although on re-reading your thread title I now suspect you may mean individual suspended payments rather than the whole service).

Indeed I do.

What are the banks for the receiving accounts? It sounds to me like an issue at the other end rather than at FD.

The affected receiving accounts are Barclays (different sort codes, both FP enabled). As mentioned, one of the two has received FP previously without issue. The one that still worked was Lloyds, but it was only a £1 payment - for all I know a larger payment may have met the same fate.

And have you rung them to ask them if they have an explanation? Given their reputation (deserved in my experience) for great telephone customer service it would seem to be a more sensible thing to do first than ask on here.

I haven't phoned them as I think the most likely explanation is that I have tripped some sort of fraud heuristic and I don't think they'll be particularly forthcoming about how their fraud detection systems work. But I was more interested in others' experiences and whether it is just me or more widespread.

Roseanne1

I sent one on Saturday night and got that message. It went the next day with no issues though.

paragon909

masonic wrote: »

Lately I've been getting the following message when I try to send payments from First Direct in the afternoon / early evening:



The first time this happened, it was for the first payment to a new recipient. I figured it was a security measure and waited until the next day. When the payment still hadn't gone that morning and appeared to be frozen in the system, I tried deleting it and sending a new one, which went through immediately.

That was last week. I've just attempted to send another payment to the same recipient and am getting the same message. The same is happening with a second account. Both payments were for a few hundred pounds. Interestingly, I tried a test £1 payment to a third account and it went through fine.

Not a big deal, although a little frustrating as I'm expecting to have to cancel both payments tomorrow and resend in order to get them to execute if my previous experience is anything to go by.

Anyone else experience anything similar?

Why don't you just call the bank and ask them, You will get a definite answer from the bank, And if there is any problems you can get it fixed.

[Deleted User]

I've had this problem with them quite a bit recently. It seems to be recipient specific.

masonic

Just like last time, I still had the two payments held as pending this morning, and just like last time I was able to send a duplicate FP to both destination accounts before deleting the pending ones.

If I get a chance this evening, I'll give them a call to see what they're willing to share with me about what is triggering these suspended payments, but I'll be pleasantly surprised if I come away knowing how to avoid this in the future.

meer53

The message appears when you set up payments after the 3.45 cut off time. They should go normally the next working day.

Kavanne

meer53 wrote: »

The message appears when you set up payments after the 3.45 cut off time. They should go normally the next working day.

There's no cut off time for faster payments?? They're 24/7 365 days a year, no??

PeacefulWaters

Kavanne wrote: »

There's no cut off time for faster payments?? They're 24/7 365 days a year, no??

But they don't have to be sent instantly at any time.

So theorising instant before time X and delayed after time Y seems reasonable.

masonic

Well, I was all geared up to send another payment to one of the problem accounts and then call FD when it got stuck, and lo and behold, the payment went through instantly at about 8 pm this time.

I don't think there is a cut off time after which same day faster payments cannot be made as I've never encountered this before and do a fair amount of my banking in the evenings and weekends.