Confirmation of Payee (CoP): how do I find out what name my bank has registered me with?

eskbanker

kulath said:
I am not going to pay someone that may or may not be the right account number. I really am not.

Your prerogative, but the fact that the system hasn't moved forward doesn't mean it's moved backwards either, so you're not really in any worse position than anyone making a bank transfer for many years, other than seeing a potentially deceptive warning message (which I agree would be better if explained on screen by your bank).

kulath said:

Interestingly, when trying to set up payee details for a member of my family (as an experiment), it accepts "Jane Doe", "J Doe", "Jane Able Baker Doe", "J A B Doe", and even "Jane John Fred Doe" (obviously incorrect), and in each case it says it is a match, even though it says "Please use the exact name registered with this account.".

Since CoP hasn't gone widely live yet, and (to the best of my knowledge) has only been reported on here as being in use by Lloyds group brands, the permutations of your bank, your contractor's bank and your family member's bank are likely to affect results - which ones are they?

Zanderman

kulath said:

colsten said:

kulath said:

No, I really, really can't pay my contractor.

You really, really can. If you just want to. 

The name mismatch does not stop you from setting up a payment to a given sort code and account number. 

I am not going to pay someone that may or may not be the right account number. I really am not.

The whole point of CoP is to make sure you pay the right person without having to put a £1 payment through first to make sure you have got the right number.

Anyway, the original question was "how do I find out what name my bank is using for me". The contractor I am trying to pay can't find out what his right name is.

If the contractor's name is so dissimilar to the name the bank has that there's no resemblance at all then perhaps it is the wrong account.  But if there is any resemblance then it probably IS the right account.  Which, if it's the account number the contractor gave you, is very likely anyway.
But, if you really are that worried and the contractor is, apparently, unable to work out their own name permutations (really??) why not just stop worrying and just do it the old way.  Transfer £1, ask if they got it and then pay the rest. Seems easy to me.

colsten

kulath said:

I am not going to pay someone that may or may not be the right account number. I really am not.

I feel so sorry for your contractor, who hopefully won't do any more work for you as you appear to looking for any old excuse to delay payment. Hopefully the contractor will also be able to warn others about you.

Shakin_Steve

Doubt that, Colsten, the poor chap can't even remember his name.

Tildaplum

The best way to find out what they name they are using for you is to set up a payment to your account with a 'near miss'

For example, if your account is in the name of John Smith and you set up a payment with Jon Smith as the payee you will get a warning saying 'the account is in the name of John Smith do you want to proceed ?'

that way you will know

Clearly the above is just an example as I have no access to the actual algorithm the bank will use but the fact is that if it is a near match you'll be told what the account is and asked if you want to proceed

mgdavid

I am not going to pay someone that may or may not be the right account number. I really am not.

I might have missed something earlier, but are you saying you doubt your contractor's ability to tell you 14 digits in the correct order, or do you doubt your ability to read 14 digits and type them in the correct order?

kulath

eskbanker said:

kulath said:

Interestingly, when trying to set up payee details for a member of my family (as an experiment), it accepts "Jane Doe", "J Doe", "Jane Able Baker Doe", "J A B Doe", and even "Jane John Fred Doe" (obviously incorrect), and in each case it says it is a match, even though it says "Please use the exact name registered with this account.".

Since CoP hasn't gone widely live yet, and (to the best of my knowledge) has only been reported on here as being in use by Lloyds group brands, the permutations of your bank, your contractor's bank and your family member's bank are likely to affect results - which ones are they?

My bank is RBS, my family member's bank Lloyds, my contractor's bank is Santander.

So it seems that CoP is NOT only used by Lloyds group.

kulath

Zanderman said:

If the contractor's name is so dissimilar to the name the bank has that there's no resemblance at all then perhaps it is the wrong account.  But if there is any resemblance then it probably IS the right account.  Which, if it's the account number the contractor gave you, is very likely anyway.
But, if you really are that worried and the contractor is, apparently, unable to work out their own name permutations (really??) why not just stop worrying and just do it the old way.  Transfer £1, ask if they got it and then pay the rest. Seems easy to me.

From what I have tried, the system does not come up with the contractors correct name unless you input a near miss. And from my experiments with a family member, some near misses are just reflected back as being the correct name!

I have previously had to transfer £1, and check that it goes through, but this new system is supposed to avoid the necessity for that, but it clearly isn't working, as the banks are not telling people what name thsy have registered the person as.

born_again

Odds on the name on the card (unless you asked for something different) then it will be as your statement, unless it's a joint account. Then its as shown on statement.

kulath

Tildaplum said:

The best way to find out what they name they are using for you is to set up a payment to your account with a 'near miss'

For example, if your account is in the name of John Smith and you set up a payment with Jon Smith as the payee you will get a warning saying 'the account is in the name of John Smith do you want to proceed ?'

that way you will know

Clearly the above is just an example as I have no access to the actual algorithm the bank will use but the fact is that if it is a near match you'll be told what the account is and asked if you want to proceed

Yes, but the account name that the contractor has given me does not come up as a near miss.