Where does my money go for two days?!?!

Crafty1980

I've just realised something...

I'm in a situation now where I can pay off my credit card every month (which is a first for me!). I do it all online from Natwest account to a Natwest card, but I've just noticed something... and it happens every month...

example: Last month, I paid off the full balance of £501.26 on Wed 1st August... It didn't reach my Credit Card until Friday 3rd August!! It's the same every month!

Where the blazers did MY money go for two days?!?! If I paid by a cheque in the post then fair enough, it takes time to process, but it's not. It's done online where no one should even have to press a button! If it was "admin" then that's a load of crap as far as I'm concerned because they shouldn't take the money from my account until they had performed the "admin" bit!!

King_Of_Fools

Into an account to pay for the bubbly at the shareholders meeting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6947632.stm

"The faster service comes two years after banks came under fire from the Office of Fair Trading for the time they take to process electronic payments, from which they make about £30m a year in interest."

YorkshireBoy

Your money disappears into the BACS ether.

You'll find some information on the APACS website at www.apacs.org.uk

This will change next May when same/next day transfers go live (if they don't put the date back again!).

If you use a DD to settle your card, the money will be credited the same day it leaves your current account.

Tirian

This is one of the things that enables you to have free banking and credit card services. The bank holds the money for a couple of days (along with the money for all the other payments/transfers going on) and the interest garnered in this way subsidises your account(s).

Another way the banks will make money is from the difference between the interest they pay you on credit balances and the return that your money actually makes them.

I'm not sure what the big fuss is about really - you're not actually losing any of 'your' money. At worst you are forgoing a couple of days interest on it. Seems a reasonable enough deal to me ...

Treadmill

King_Of_Fools wrote: »

Into an account to pay for the bubbly at the shareholders meeting.

Thats Exactly how it works...

inmypocketnottheirs

Tirian wrote: »

This is one of the things that enables you to have free banking and credit card services. The bank holds the money for a couple of days (along with the money for all the other payments/transfers going on) and the interest garnered in this way subsidises your account(s).

Another way the banks will make money is from the difference between the interest they pay you on credit balances and the return that your money actually makes them.

I'm not sure what the big fuss is about really - you're not actually losing any of 'your' money. At worst you are forgoing a couple of days interest on it. Seems a reasonable enough deal to me ...

Call me old fashioned, but I like to know where my money is. If I am transferring from my current account to my credit card account, and I am being charged interest at a higher rate on my credit card than on my current account, I think I am entitled to know where it is.

Stephen_Leak

As advised, its in the Bank Automated Clearing System, a sort of financial limbo, hyperspace, transporter beam, etc.

Never forget that, despite the shiny facade of computers and the internet, the basic principles involved would still not be unfamiliar to someone in a 17th century coffee house.

Personally, I can't wait for next May (or whenever), if only to see the new system go spectacularly pear shaped!

It is obvious that the banks didn't want the new system. Now they have no choice, they are understandably playing the "reliability" card. This will be the first national IT project where "failure is not an option", and the previous ones don't exactly inspire confidence.

jonesMUFCforever

Does the OP also not notice that it can take up to 2 days for transactions he has made to show up on his account or does that not count??

moonrakerz

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

This will change next May when same/next day transfers go live (if they don't put the date back again!).

If you use a DD to settle your card, the money will be credited the same day it leaves your current account.

"New customers only" !

Tirian

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Call me old fashioned, but I like to know where my money is. If I am transferring from my current account to my credit card account, and I am being charged interest at a higher rate on my credit card than on my current account, I think I am entitled to know where it is.

You're quite a demanding soul. Of course you're being charged at a higher rate on your credit card - banks are not charities! You're happy enough to have the bank's money for free for up to 50 days or so via your credit card, but you object to them having your money for two days while they sort out a transfer? Methinks thou dost protest too much ...

friday13

Just so others don't do what I did (don't laugh). I forgot to factor the floating time of the money over the weekend and included the weekend in my 4 working days. The money should have reached my credit card by Sunday 5th but was only recognised as arriving on Mon 6th followed by a double whammy of a late fee + interest. live and learn and won't be doing that again.