Cynergy Bank and the bank verification process

Patsy_AT

I am in the process of opening a 1 year savings account with Cynergy Bank, thanks to tips on this site. However my bank (First Direct) doesn't recognise the details I enter when I try to make a transfer. I'm told this is because Cynergy have not signed up for the bank verification process. This naturally makes me anxious, as on a previous occasion when I tried to make a transfer into another 'unrecognised' account the money bounced. What is the significance of the bank verification process, and should I be anxious?

Daliah

No need to worry at all. Most banks and Building Societies are actually not part of the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) system. First Direct, like all other banks doing CoP, will allow you to ignore their warnings. You just need to be absolutely certain that you use the correct sort code and account number, and Reference if the target bank has advised you need to use a Reference.

If in doubt, make a test payment of £1, save the payee, and pay the rest with the saved payee when you are satisfied you got the numbers correct. With a fixed term account, check with the provider that you can make more than one deposit - - usually they give you up to 14 days to make all your deposits but I don't know what Cynergy's terms are.

Note you can now get a tad more interest at Atom than at Cynergy, and the min amount at Atom is £50 vs £10,000 at Cynergy. Though I believe you will have the same CoP 'issues'.

refluxer

Daliah said:

Note you can now get a tad more interest at Atom than at Cynergy, and the min amount at Atom is £50 vs £10,000 at Cynergy. Though I believe you will have the same CoP 'issues'.

Atom have now joined the CoP scheme according to a recent post, which is good news

Zuzi

Just to add to what's been said before (I too have opened the one year bond account with Cynergy and fed it from FD) - send a pound first and once you see it in the account, use the same payee for any other transactions. The funding window is 14 days as far as I know (I needed just over a week to get all the money over, no issues with any of the transactions).

Patsy_AT

Thanks very much everyone, that's reassuring. I have already sent £20 into the account to check  and it went through okay, and since Cynergy is covered by the Financial Services scheme - and it's recommended on MSE - I guess I have nothing to worry about! Cheers.

Daliah

Patsy_AT said:

Thanks very much everyone, that's reassuring. I have already sent £20 into the account to check  and it went through okay, and since Cynergy is covered by the Financial Services scheme - and it's recommended on MSE - I guess I have nothing to worry about! Cheers.

Be aware that MSE does not recommend any accounts. They are just listing them by highest interest rate, and I believe they are only listing accounts with FSCS cover (which most savings accounts do have these days)

Bigwheels1111

Had trouble funding, Atom, Tandem, Chase, Ford money and Raisin in the past, but only the first payment.
Except when very large payments are sent then the fraud team get involved.

Violinviolamum

Hi all my Natwest account is refusing to recognise my new Cynergy bank account - I guess to do with the bank verification point above. But I can't actually find a way round it - as in, it refuses to recognise the account number and therefore I can't pay in! Any tips - other than call the bank?!

RosieRooBear

@Violinviolamum, I opened an easy access Cynergy account yesterday (backup for the Santander which is reducing their rate in May). I can’t pay into it either as neither Barclays or Nationwide recognise my details, basically says my account doesn’t exist 🤷🏼‍♀️. Reading on other threads I’m waiting until tomorrow as hopefully should be able to then, if not I’ll give them a call.

timdiecast

Violinviolamum said:

Hi all my Natwest account is refusing to recognise my new Cynergy bank account - I guess to do with the bank verification point above. But I can't actually find a way round it - as in, it refuses to recognise the account number and therefore I can't pay in! Any tips - other than call the bank?!

Same here. I am hoping it will sort itself out in a day or two.

p.s. I've been on the Natwest chat and they say to give it a couple of days.

timdiecast

Straight from the horses mouth- Cynergy customer support say-

For newly opened accounts it can take up to 2 working days for the Confirmation of Payee register to be updated, and until it's updated some banks won't allow payments to be made.