Which uk banks let you save 2 payees with same account number

plh56

Running into a minor issue with Natwest where I need to pay more than £1000 to 2 separate tax free childcare accounts on the same day but unable to.
The issue is that tax free childcare accounts use the same sort code and bank account number for everyone, with a unique reference number per child used to pay into the correct account. Unfortunately NatWest doesn't seem to let you save 2 separate payees which share the same account number for some reason.
If I try to add my 2nd son's tax free account as a new payee it only lets me edit the first one.

Up until now this has been an annoyance as it means we have to manually edit the reference number each time we want to pay into the relevant account for each boy, but not a real problem. But now we are needing to pay more than £1000 we are hitting the daily limit for new payees presumably because each time we have to change the reference number it resets the payee and marks it as a new one again so even though we have higher limits set for existing payees we never get to use the higher limit.
So far Natwest have been no help so I've had to transfer to my wife's account and pay the 2nd bill from there to get around this limit.

But thinking of moving banks anyway so just wondered if this is a problem all banks have or just some?
If it's just some does anyone know which banks let you save a shared bank account number with unique payment reference as separate payees?

Thanks!

emmajones1976

You could just open a 2nd account yourself rather than going via your wife (an app based one like Monzo or Chase or whatever)  and move the money into there, and then onwards again. 

plh56

emmajones1976 said:

You could just open a 2nd account yourself rather than going via your wife (an app based one like Monzo or Chase or whatever)  and move the money into there, and then onwards again. 

Yeah good idea thanks, that will be my fallback plan, but if there is a bank that lets me do it all directly that would be my first preference.

pafpcg

Santander123 allows two payees with the same sort-code & account number provided the Reference data is different.

Update:
The Co-operative bank appears to allow this too even with identical reference data.  Caution: I haven't tested this but my payee list does have two entries with identical payees!

Daliah

Starling Bank allows you any number of payees with the same sort code and account number, even same Ref.

northwalesd

Lloyds also allow it - and presumably Halifax and BoS.

Zanderman

Many of my accounts have multiple payees with the same account number, not least as many have been switched into several times and have multiple instances of the same payee but with different references.  Some of them are a real mess of multiples and I need to do some tidying up.

plh56

Zanderman said:

Many of my accounts have multiple payees with the same account number, not least as many have been switched into several times and have multiple instances of the same payee but with different references.  Some of them are a real mess of multiples and I need to do some tidying up.

Thanks, which banks are these with?

soulsaver

All banks allow you to pay two or more different payees with the same sort code and ac number.
Assuming it's not a browser issue or a tech glitch, you are likely doing something incorrectly. 

Try phoning or messaging their help desk, or someone on here will be along to help that is familiar with Nat West's payee process.

Daliah

soulsaver said:

All banks allow you to pay two or more different payees with the same sort code and ac number.
Assuming it's not a browser issue or a tech glitch, you are likely doing something incorrectly. 

Try phoning or messaging their help desk, or someone on here will be along to help that is familiar with Nat West's payee process.

Natwest, RBS and Ulster don't. There is nothing the OP has done incorrectly.

Zanderman

soulsaver said:

All banks allow you to pay two or more different payees with the same sort code and ac number.
Assuming it's not a browser issue or a tech glitch, you are likely doing something incorrectly. 

Try phoning or messaging their help desk, or someone on here will be along to help that is familiar with Nat West's payee process.

well, I'm not sure that's the case, I just tried, as an experiment, to set up a second version of an existing payee account from an RBS account (presumably the same systems as the OP's NatWest) and the system stopped it and told me "You already have a payment instruction set up for this payee."  So it may not be possible for NatWest/RBS, as the OP has already said.