Please delete my forum account delete delete delete delete delete runabout outside

molerat

Lightning360 said:

molerat said:

Lightning360 said:

molerat said:

Lightning360 said:

For Santander, I can set a reference which means I can see the difference between accounts with the same name. Can you not do this?

How do you do that ?  You can set a reference which the receiving account shows but not the sending account, that only shows the name of the account it is going to which you can override, with warnings of dire consequences, in the case of multiple accounts in the same name which is the op's problem.

The reference is shown in the transaction description when you send money, which can be seen when you tap on the transaction on the app. 

But that doesn't get over the payee list problem, a whole line of your own name.

But the payee list has references so you can see the difference.

I don't quite understand the OPs problem with Santander. I have never been confused with who I was paying or who I had paid money to because the reference is always present next to the name or very easy to get to.

I have just checked and you are right. but if you are an old web banking customer you will be accustomed to the old way of selecting the payee, which is still there on the cobbled together web page, and that does not show the reference. I think various updates though have improved / modified what you see.  Something new learned every day

Lightning360

molerat said:

Lightning360 said:

molerat said:

Lightning360 said:

molerat said:

Lightning360 said:

For Santander, I can set a reference which means I can see the difference between accounts with the same name. Can you not do this?

How do you do that ?  You can set a reference which the receiving account shows but not the sending account, that only shows the name of the account it is going to which you can override, with warnings of dire consequences, in the case of multiple accounts in the same name which is the op's problem.

The reference is shown in the transaction description when you send money, which can be seen when you tap on the transaction on the app. 

But that doesn't get over the payee list problem, a whole line of your own name.

But the payee list has references so you can see the difference.

I don't quite understand the OPs problem with Santander. I have never been confused with who I was paying or who I had paid money to because the reference is always present next to the name or very easy to get to.

I have just checked and you are right. but if you are an old web banking customer you will be accustomed to the old way of selecting the payee and that does not show the reference.  Something new learned every day

Online banking also shows the reference when paying someone (unless there are multiple ways to pay someone through online banking).

If you are simply viewing payees, the list doesn't have the references but you can click to view more information about the payee.

If you click to pay a payee on the sidebar, it will take you to a newer looking page which has the references next to the names.

(Sorry if the names of these pages are incorrect. I'm doing this from memory but I did test it around 10 minutes ago to make sure I was correct. Using the method I used, the references were definitely shown next to the names when selecting a payee).

colsten

Lightning360 said:

For Santander, I can set a reference which means I can see the difference between accounts with the same name. Can you not do this?

Not a useful suggestion for payments that require the Reference to direct the payment to the correct account. There are countless instances where this is mandatory - e.g. some credit card payments, some building society accounts, some bill payments

In any case, you can name your recipient whatever you like, at all banks.

tacpot12

I think you are worrying about this too much. If you are setting up a payment to yourself, you don't need the account name to match, you can set the name of the account to ME at Barclays, ME at Lloyds, etc. You won't get the positive confirmation that you have not misentered the  sort code and account number that  COP provides, but you can just check the data carefully, and send a payment of £1.xx to check that you have not made an error. 

When you are paying someone, that is when you need COP and it is highly unlikely that they will be called 'ME at Barclays' or whatever.  

I wouldn't fall out with my bank over such a small issue. 

tacpot12

And knowing how banks work, you are likley to find that your bank does implement your suggestion at some point in the future. 

RG2015

In the NatWest CoP, if they have have confirmed the details, they then give you the option of renaming the account. For example Fred Bloggs can be called F Bloggs Halifax 1.

They also do not require an exact match. If you put in F Blogs, it says it's a close match, the account name is Fred Bloggs.

Nebulous2

I’m not sure I understand this. In My Santander account, which has the most payees,  I have a list of 15 or so, most of them being me. They have very imaginative names, such as Lloyds or Natwest. Family members tend to have a Christian name only. I’ve never had a message saying the account name doesn’t match. 

Most of them would have pre-dated the name- matching process, but once set up they just go through without any other warnings. I know they are right, because I’ve used them repeatedly and they have worked. 

colsten

Deleted_User said:

 So I find the way Santander and Halifax implemented it by refusing to add an optional "description" (or sometimes called "nickname") field is unacceptable 

You are making a mountain out of a molehill. It really isn't hard to get your own sort code and account number right, and - as has already been mentioned - you can use the "send £1 to new accounts" method to be doubly sure.

Accounts which require a Reference cannot be verified by COP, so you have to use other methods for these, anyway. Such as double- and triple-checking you typed the numbers correctly, sending a £1 etc etc

The checking only takes place when you set up new payees, so it's hardly a daily or weekly thing to do.

I have in excess of 80 active accounts of some sort or other, and never needed COP to verify any of them. Nor has COP substantially interfered with my naming system which I have used for many years, and no bank has ever forced me to use anything but my naming system, not before COP or since we have COP. If I can cope with it, most people can. Those that cannot should probably stay away from online and app banking. 

masonic

Deleted_User said:

EssexExile said:

I don't get it. You put what you want as the account name, the bank says it doesn't match, are you sure? You say yes you are sure and carry on.

Thus making the massive step forward of the "Confirmation of Payee" to me a total waste of effort. No matter how good we are, we all make mistakes. I've made mistakes in my life but have you never in your life ever made a mistake such as getting a number wrong?

The effort is not wasted on the majority of people who find the service useful, or who have encountered your issue periodically, shrugged, and carried on as they did with a made up "account name" before CoP existed. Not every bank supports it, so every now and then people are going to encounter situations where they need to get the details right, double and triple checking them if it is a high value transaction and they are not at liberty to send a £1 test payment.

colsten

Deleted_User said:

1 Some saving (or other accounts) require a minimum deposit when an account it opened (eg might be £10,000). So in that case I say, "can I please open it with £1" and they respond "No, £10,000) needed to open". Tough luck to me.

Such accounts are as rare as hens teeth

Deleted_User said:

2 By needing to put in an initial "test" £1 that creates a time delay in getting the "real" money in later. OK, usually that's not a serious issue at all but occasionally there could be a problem. For example the institution might only allow one single deposit for the new account. £1 wouldn't do for me.

In the age of Faster Payments, the delay is usually minutes.

Accounts which only allow one single deposit are, as per above, rare as hens teeth.

Deleted_User said:

In any case, with a great deal of publicity this wonderful new Confirmation of Payee has been launched to solve the problem of money going astray. The banks have already had to adjust their systems to cope with it. While making this change, which would have involved a great deal of IT work, adding just 1 additional optional field would have taken just a minimal effort compared with the other changes they've had to implement.

Nobody has ever claimed that COP will entirely solve the problem of money going astray. It helps a bit, but in reality it is a sledge hammer to crack a nut with.

You don't appear to be familiar with software development, otherwise you wouldn't claim that adding just 1 additional optional field would have taken just a minimal effort [compared with the other changes they've had to implement]. Each development needs a business case, and just because one development is cheaper than an other one is not really justification for mucking about with working systems. In addition, adding a field isn't necessarily simple, especially if you have at least 3 different user environments (browser, iOS, Android) to cater for. The entire COP thing was some fancy idea of consumer champions who hadn't thought it through but hoped their idea would stop fraudsters ⁠🤣⁠

However, as you appear to feel so strongly about the matter, perhaps you should offer your consulting skills to the banks. Ranting on the MSE forum won't change any systems.