How do you know when cash is available to withdraw?

greyskittles

My brother is in another country but I have access to his internet banking as he's only young and I do all the dealings with it. I checked his statement online and he's just received his first pay packet today and the transaction has the code 'BCG' next to it.

He owes me £50 and I'd like to do an online transfer to my bank account. Does anyone know whether it'll be okay to transfer it now, or does it take a few days to be able to withdraw the money (as it would do if it was a cheque)?? I don't want to overdraw as he doesn't have an overdraft so he'd be charged!

Thanks.

dunstonh

'BCG'

LOL. Thats the injection you get in your arm when you are at school. The code is BGC = Bank Giro Credit.

If its an automated BGC then it will clear same day. If its a manual BGC then it will clear next day if a cheque was used (from another bank).

You should wait until next working day to be safe.

A lot of banks tell you what your cleared funds are on the internet banking so you could look at that.

YorkshireBoy

Are you sure it's not BGC, ie Bank Giro Credit? These are normally classed as cleared as soon as they hit your current account - savings accounts may require a few days to clear.

There will probably be two balance figures listed...

Balance, the total of all monies - including those items in clearance.

Available balance, this is the figure to be used when determining if there are sufficient cleared funds to withdraw.

However...

- what you and he are doing is contravening his T&C's. If the bank find out they may terminate his online access - or even close his account.

- if he decides to spend some money whilst he is abroad, thinking he has sufficient funds, he may well go overdrawn when this is applied to his account and you have helped yourself to the £50 he owes you.

Badger_Lady

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

- what you and he are doing is contravening his T&C's. If the bank find out they may terminate his online access - or even close his account.

Yes - to do what you're talking about makes good sense, but it should be official, i.e. it should be a joint account (easy option) or you should have legal rights through power of attorney or something (complicated).

I know you've got his full permission, but he doesn't really have the right to give it - be careful!

varybarry

Badger Lady is right you should make it official to avoid any complications in the future.