Cheque or CHAPS less scary for large transfers?

pinkteapot

We need to transfer money to buy a house to our solicitor, so it's a large transfer representing all our life savings!

They accept cheques, and I'm tempted to go old school and pay by cheque instead of CHAPS because I get irrationally nervous about mis-keying of account numbers on electronic payments.

Cheque would be slightly MSE anyway as we'd save the £17 HSBC would charge us for CHAPS.

Straw poll - what would you do?

And am I right in thinking that a cheque payment can't go wrong?

JuicyJesus

House purchases are often time critical and having surety of funds is essential. Cheque payments can indeed go wrong (banks querying and then bouncing cheque payments because they're for large out of character amounts is not something that is unheard of) and the solicitor may want to wait a few days for the cheque to definitely clear before they do anything else for you.

Also, the way CHAPS works (at least, the last time I did one) you are given a copy of the payment instruction to check, confirm the details of and sign well before the payment gets released. Any miskeying would very rapidly come to light for that reason.

If I was in your shoes, doing the same thing, I would pay the £17 twice before I'd consider using a cheque.

pinkteapot

Hmmm... CHAPS would be ordered by phone, not in-person, so we won't be able to see the instruction. Getting to a branch is awkward but possibly worth it then...

I did happen to be near our branch the other day so went in to ask our options. The person I spoke to was a bit vague on the CHAPS process and said he hadn't ordered one himself yet. :eek: The person on telephone banking seemed more confident.

Thank you though - sound advice. (Re timescale, solicitor said a cheque needs 6 working days and we have well over that to get the money there).

SpanishBlue

Is doing an online transfer yourself an option?


Initially transfer a small amount to check it's got there safely.


Most (all?) banks do have limits to how much you can transfer, but with some you can phone them to transfer large amounts.


Nationwide have a £10k limit, but you can transfer as many times as you like, so eg 20 transfers to transfer £200k.

pinkteapot

No online option with HSBC, and the limit is daily, not per transaction. £25k a day is the limit you can send to any one account and we don't have time to spread it over sufficient days.

Options for transfer are CHAPS by phone or in-branch.

cloud_dog

SpanishBlue wrote: »

Is doing an online transfer yourself an option?


Initially transfer a small amount to check it's got there safely.


Most (all?) banks do have limits to how much you can transfer, but with some you can phone them to transfer large amounts.


Nationwide have a £10k limit, but you can transfer as many times as you like, so eg 20 transfers to transfer £200k.

Are you sure you are not confusing Faster Payments method with CHAPS? According to this, CHAPS transfers are unlimited in value.

eskbanker

cloud_dog wrote: »

Are you sure you are not confusing Faster Payments method with CHAPS? According to this, CHAPS transfers are unlimited in value.

As I read it, the poster was deliberately suggesting Faster Payments as a potentially cheaper alternative to CHAPS, while observing that there will be daily or transaction limits constraining the DIY choice....

cloud_dog

Having re read, I agree. (ignore my post).

SpanishBlue

eskbanker wrote: »

As I read it, the poster was deliberately suggesting Faster Payments as a potentially cheaper alternative to CHAPS, while observing that there will be daily or transaction limits constraining the DIY choice....

That is indeed what I meant. Sorry for any confusion.

xylophone

We need to transfer money to buy a house to our solicitor, so it's a large transfer representing all our life savings!

They accept cheques,

The money is in your bank account. You know when the funds will be required.

If you would feel more comfortable with a cheque, why not just write one in favour of your solicitor and drop it in a couple of weeks before completion?

You could always speak to your bank about your issuing a high value cheque?

Ballard

I don’t think that the £17 fee should be your prime concern. You’re sending several hundred thousand pounds so this charge is inconsequential.

The thing that rightly concerns you most is that the money goes to the right place. Perhaps you can call the bank on speakerphone and two of you can listen back to the details that are repeated to give you a greater deal of comfort.