Trying to set up standing order on NatWest account

WatlingA5

Hope I've come to the right section

We've just spent a long time trying to meet the NatWest 'maximum 18 characters' rule for a payee's details. The business's name is three words, an ampersand and three more words which come to well over 18. We tried limiting the name to the first three words and the ampersand since, with the spaces counting as characters (we assumed), it just repeated the 18-character rule. 

We find it frustrating that we are told to give the name exactly as on the business name - at the same time as limiting its name. We had a look at the bank's 'help' page but could not find anything useful. 

Can someone please explain how we get round this crazy set-up?  

eskbanker

What's the result of the Confirmation of Payee check if you just use the first 18 characters of the company's name, i.e. does it give you the partial success message or outright failure?  If the company has such a long name, they must be familiar with this issue by now, do they offer any suggestions or other payment methods, e.g. debit card?

Edit: just realised it's a standing order you want to set up, so debit card isn't going to be particularly viable!  Is the size of the regular payment small enough to risk ignoring the CoP warning for the first one?

WatlingA5

Thank you for getting back  

My OH checked with the business which, it turned out, used a much more sensible abbreviated name for bank use, and she had been given the wrong details... standing order safely set up! Thanks again.