Why does it take 3wd for a payment to be credited to my credit card account...?

wendywindle

Hi, forum newbie here.

Today's musing - I just sent a payment from my HSBC current account to my HSBC Visa card; although the payment is debited from my current account straight away, it takes about 3 working days to show up on my credit card balance.  This has always been the case, over 20 years to my knowledge/recollection.

Question occurred to me today, in this world of faster payments - WHY?  Anyone know if there's a valid reason for this or just another way for the banks to stooge a bit more money out of us?  A quick google suggests with some banks the payment could be credited to the credit card account immediately.

SiliconChip

The mechanics of it are that you make a faster payment on day 1, the card issuer credits the payment to their collection account by the end of day 2 (in line with the Payment Services Regulations 2017) and the payment is allocated to your account within their systems on day 3. You're right that it can be done quicker, it's not something I do very often but I'm pretty sure that one-off payments I've made to my Amazon Mastercard have shown up in my account by day 2 at the latest, but the reason some don't do it is that they can make money by holding on to your payment for an extra day or two. In pre-FPS days I suggested a processing change when I was working for one of the big card issuers that earned them an extra £6 million a year - I think I got a £100 thank you for it!

wendywindle

Yes that's my suspicion - they could do it faster if they wanted to, but across 10000's of accounts they would lose out on the day-or-two's interest.  Takes the mickey.  

penners324

Probably due to HSBC banking infrastructure being ancient.

I use Aqua and had Tandem in the past. Payments show almost instantly 

MattMattMattUK

wendywindle said:

Yes that's my suspicion - they could do it faster if they wanted to, but across 10000's of accounts they would lose out on the day-or-two's interest.  Takes the mickey.  

They won't be making any appreciable amount of interest. The reason they won't change it is that the system they currently have is proven, they know it works, they know how to fix it when things go wrong and change is both expensive and risky. It is not an issue to anyone that it takes three days as everyone knows it takes three days, so there is no positive reason for them to change and several reasons not to change. 

Thrugelmir

If you sent a manual payment then the transaction will be processed manually. HSBC don't know you've sent it until it arrives. Won't even be looked at until the day after at the earliest. Then will go through a multi stage reconcilation process.  Quicker if you log on and pay directly by debit card. Then the payment is immediately allocated. 

Faster payments just arrive at their destination quicker. Nothing more than that. 

Saver101101

wendywindle said:

Hi, forum newbie here.

Today's musing - I just sent a payment from my HSBC current account to my HSBC Visa card; although the payment is debited from my current account straight away, it takes about 3 working days to show up on my credit card balance.  This has always been the case, over 20 years to my knowledge/recollection.

Question occurred to me today, in this world of faster payments - WHY?  Anyone know if there's a valid reason for this or just another way for the banks to stooge a bit more money out of us?  A quick google suggests with some banks the payment could be credited to the credit card account immediately.

That's odd as I send payments from my HSBC Current Account to my HSBC Credit card every month and it doesn't take 3 days to show, on the HSBC App I choose the account from (Current Account) and the Account to (Credit card Account) and the amount, The available Credit is Updated by the amount instantly in the Credit card account, and it shows in the credit card transactions the next day, and I have been doing it for years that way, its certainly never takes 3 days.

MattMattMattUK

Saver101101 said:

wendywindle said:

Hi, forum newbie here.

Today's musing - I just sent a payment from my HSBC current account to my HSBC Visa card; although the payment is debited from my current account straight away, it takes about 3 working days to show up on my credit card balance.  This has always been the case, over 20 years to my knowledge/recollection.

Question occurred to me today, in this world of faster payments - WHY?  Anyone know if there's a valid reason for this or just another way for the banks to stooge a bit more money out of us?  A quick google suggests with some banks the payment could be credited to the credit card account immediately.

That's odd as I send payments from my HSBC Current Account to my HSBC Credit card every month and it doesn't take 3 days to show, on the HSBC App I choose the account from (Current Account) and the Account to (Credit card Account) and the amount, The available Credit is Updated by the amount instantly in the Credit card account, and it shows in the credit card transactions the next day, and I have been doing it for years that way, its certainly never takes 3 days.

I imagine that would be being processed as an account to account transfer, not a Faster Payments transaction. I can do the same with my Nationwide account, if I make a payment to my credit card using Faster Payments it does not how straight away, if I make it via the "another Nationwide account" option then it shows in the pending section straight away and in the main balance the next working day. 

Thrugelmir

A faster payment is just an account to account transfer. Arrives in a pot with thousands and thousands of other transactions........... Isn't credited directly to a specific individuals record. 

daveyjp

John Lewis card is operated by HSBC.

The last payment I made for the balance (from a none HSBC account) was credited the same day to the credit card account.

born_again

Visa systems do not work in real time like bank accounts. At best they update once a day. But not over weekends. 
What you should notice is that your available balance does increase within a short period (2 hours) of the payment amount.

> they could do it faster if they wanted to, but across 10000's of accounts they would lose out on the day-or-two's interest.  Takes the mickey.  <
 Not sure where you think doing it faster would lose interest, unless you are thinking in terms of still carrying a balance & not paying in full.
As any payment to a CC is taken when the payment is received. NOT the actual debit date.