Virgin Money Current Account

typistretired

From previous comments posted I believe you have to put the name of the account holder ie Joe Bloggs rather than previously the name of the Bank ie Lloyd’s Bank

dcs34

typistretired said:

From previous comments posted I believe you have to put the name of the account holder ie Joe Bloggs rather than previously the name of the Bank ie Lloyd’s Bank

True, but for some savings products (e.g. regular savers with smaller Building Societies) the 'Account Name' linked to the account number and sort code for paying in is the name of the Building Society in question, with the name of the account holder being given in the reference so the payment is processed into the correct savings account by the Building Society at their end.

How the Confirmation of Payee authentication process handles such arrangements is a little unclear, I would bet there will be some people paying into their own personal savings account (using their name) being told they are using the wrong name as the system is expecting the name of the Building Society which matches the given account number and sort code.

kaMelo

dcs34 said:

typistretired said:

From previous comments posted I believe you have to put the name of the account holder ie Joe Bloggs rather than previously the name of the Bank ie Lloyd’s Bank

True, but for some savings products (e.g. regular savers with smaller Building Societies) the 'Account Name' linked to the account number and sort code for paying in is the name of the Building Society in question, with the name of the account holder being given in the reference so the payment is processed into the correct savings account by the Building Society at their end.

How the Confirmation of Payee authentication process handles such arrangements is a little unclear, I would bet there will be some people paying into their own personal savings account (using their name) being told they are using the wrong name as the system is expecting the name of the Building Society which matches the given account number and sort code.

I had exactly that scenario when transferring money to the RCI Bank who use one account number and sort code for payments then rely on the reference for crediting the relevant account.
Tried using my own name and it came up as a mis-match, checked all details again and they were definitely correct so couldn't understand the problem. Thought I would try "RCI Bank" as payee and it came back as a match.  
Frankly the CoP is a pain in the backside, it's yet anther step of security that is making online banking harder and harder to do whilst providing no additional security.

Archi_Bald

kaMelo said:

Frankly the CoP is a pain in the backside, it's yet anther step of security that is making online banking harder and harder to do whilst providing no additional security.

Hear hear.

Yet some people hail it as a great win for consumers over banks.

eskbanker

Archi_Bald said:

kaMelo said:

Frankly the CoP is a pain in the backside, it's yet anther step of security that is making online banking harder and harder to do whilst providing no additional security.

Hear hear.

Yet some people hail it as a great win for consumers over banks.

Do they?

It's always seemed to me that once fully and properly implemented it should reduce APP scams - that primarily benefits the banks who currently underwrite the cost of these, but it's also clear that being scammed is a traumatic experience for those who fall for them, so I'm broadly supportive of the concept itself.  However, it's hard to defend the drawn-out implementation timescales and the seemingly haphazard staged introduction with poor communication, that continues to cause confusion!

Archi_Bald

Some do, AFAICS.

Thing is, I don't believe COP will deter scammers much. Those who would previously have fallen for the APP scams can be talked into new scams in which they can lose just as much money.

eskbanker

Archi_Bald said:

Thing is, I don't believe COP will deter scammers much. Those who would previously have fallen for the APP scams can be talked into new scams in which they can lose just as much money.

Quite possibly, but that still doesn't seem much of an argument for not plugging an existing known loophole - don't let perfect be the enemy of good and all that....

Archi_Bald

COP is a bit like putting an extra lock on your front door whilst leaving all the windows open. 

eskbanker

Archi_Bald said:

COP is a bit like putting an extra lock on your front door whilst leaving all the windows open. 

But what are all the more obvious scam prevention measures that should be implemented too (or instead)?

dcs34

CoP is helpful in giving you true positives, as in "yes, this account is in the name of the person you are trying to pay". Having an in-built system that displays the bank/institution from the sort code is also a useful feature, particularly against scammers trying to front as a bank specific to their victim.

Where it will cause frustration in it's current implementation is the number of false negatives it will throw up due to the required accuracy/precision of the account name conflicting with all sorts of edge cases that the average banking user won't immediately recognise.

It would seem the only manageable solution is to effectively turn it into an 'account name' search facility using the account number and sort code, but that could lead to all sorts of security issues etc, and still leaves the business of actually verifying the payment information up to the end user to determine if the information returned in any way matches their expectations.


Anyway, apologies, this has veered a little of course from Virgin Money current accounts!