Over the branch counter Faster Payments?

anne99

My elderly father recently moved his banking to Clydesdale Bank in a nearby town when the last branch (of another bank) in his village closed.
His banking practice was to do transactions over the counter, including sending small-ish sums (<£1500) to family members. He could do that in his last bank and never paid any fees to do so. But when he went to try and do the same in Clydesdale Bank he was told that there would be a fee of £25 per transaction. He paid the £50 that day but vowed not to pay such a charge in future. With my encouragement he went back to query this and was told no, we don't do that, but we may in the future. He declined to make a formal complaint.
My understanding is that the free way is Faster Payments, and the chargeable way is CHAPS.
Asking around, it seems Clydesdale Bank may be out of step with other banks over faster payments. Worse, their website talks about Faster Payments being a feature of their current account, with no mention that you can't do it in branch.

Many thanks for information to help us understand and move forward.

colsten

Most people will probably make faster payments in their online banking or via an app. In general, FPs can be made online/app, telephone and branch. In branch may or may not mean with a person - it could be one of the machines that increasingly replace tellers.

In practice, it is up to the bank what services they provide and how.
http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/consumers

If your father doesn't trust himself with online banking or with an app, perhaps he could try telephone banking? First Direct are specialist in it, and people was lyrical about their CS.

agrinnall

It sounds like it'll be easier (for him at least) and much cheaper if he simply writes a cheque and puts it in the post.