Kent Reliance - are they really this bad?

jak22

I assume most banks use faster payments and are instant. The issue is more the time after you request a transfer for it to happen and the time after it arrives for it to show in your account and get an email or text.

Some of the banks mentioned here seem to schedule transfers for later that day or even the next working day with a cut-off time. Some only seem to update the balance and send out notifications at certain times of day - like morning or lunchtime - even though the money probably arrived before.

So while some transfers happens immediately after you request it, and you get notified straight away, so the whole thing appears instant, transfers between others may seem to take days even if the actual transfer was probably quick when it happened.

Rudyson

BillTee said:

Saved with them for years until I left Kent last August. If you're near a branch, you should have no problem. Their online system is basic - open, deposit and balance enquiries only.  Otherwise, you will be left to post or the vagaries of telephone banking - I avoided both whilst with them. NB: they don't accept faster payments

You can also withdraw funds online to your nominated account, although their regular savers have to be closed in branch - at least the last one I had did.

lilythepink2

Sounds as if Kent Reliance did me a favour by rejecting my application for a savings bond!  Having spent a considerable amount of time reading all the documents before applying, I then filled in the form. I received a message saying they were unable to verify my nominated bank account. I had a similar response from Smart Save who said it might be because I had opened my bank account before 1998 and in that case there was nothing they could do to open an account for me!!

SMcGill

I opened an ISA with KR a few weeks ago and had no problem so this morning I thought I would open an easy access account too as the 2.47% interest rate is good enough. 

On the plus side I got an email confirming the account number within minutes and it appeared on my KR list of accounts too.

On the downside it shows as 0.1% interest … what?! Anyone else had this?

jak22

As with some other accounts the rate is reduced when you drop below the minimum opening balance £1 - £999 0.10%

isasmurf

BillTee said:

 NB: they don't accept faster payments

jak22 said:

I assume most banks use faster payments and are instant. The issue is more the time after you request a transfer for it to happen and the time after it arrives for it to show in your account and get an email or text.

Some of the banks mentioned here seem to schedule transfers for later that day or even the next working day with a cut-off time. Some only seem to update the balance and send out notifications at certain times of day - like morning or lunchtime - even though the money probably arrived before.

So while some transfers happens immediately after you request it, and you get notified straight away, so the whole thing appears instant, transfers between others may seem to take days even if the actual transfer was probably quick when it happened.

All banks and building societies use the Faster Payments System for payment transfers. The difference in processing times will depend on how they are connected to the FPS. 

An institution can be a direct participant to FPS. To be a direct participant the institution must have a settlement account at the BoE. Direct participants can submit instructions to the FPS in real time, thus you usually get instant transfers for payments where the sending and receiving institution are direct participants. These used to be just the major banks, but changes were made in 2018 to widen the scope of institutions that could open a settlement account. 

An institution can be a directly connected non settlement participant in the FPS. These can submit and receive instructions to the FPS but also need to communicate with a direct participant for settlement. These are usually relatively quick but not instant.

Or an institution can be an indirect participant. These will require a direct participant to interact with the FPS on their behalf.  There are various models to operate as an indirect participant but typically it will involve sending and receiving batch files of payment instructions to be processed by the direct participant at an agreed time or times of the day, hence why withdrawals can be next working day, and for the direct participant to record the payment for settlement. These will usually be the smaller building societies and challenger banks. 

Frequentlyhere

8 pages into this thread, I think we can conclude that yes they really are that bad.

billn

Having read all of the comments I still went ahead (they can't be that bad surely) and tried to transfer my cash ISA to them, the rate was good at the time, I filled the online form in and received the confirmation, yesterday I got a text and email asking me to ring them to give further information  , I rang, put in the queue of 59 and got though in 89 minutes, the line to the call centre was very hard to hear but I was told that the transfer request had been forwarded to Santander but was rejected because the account didn't exist, I must ring Santander to find out why, I rang Santander knowing that they probably wouldn't be able to help if they didn't recognise the account number and I was right, so back to Kent Reliance and they are resubmitting the request.

There is a saying about banging your head against a brick wall and I can't think where it comes from.

Downthedrain

I also went ahead with an ISA transfer (from Coventry BS) to KR, despite apprehension and confusion over the wording on their site and subsequent emails. The transfer took place just 4 days after opening the account - quite impressive. I had one automated email saying there's is the requirement to fund the account with at least £1000 within 7 days, and another in reply to me asking for clarification saying this is a generic email that does not apply to ISA transfers.

I can't comprehend why don't they don't change the online form logic, and the resulting emails. It's as though the people who run this side of the business never look at the system from a customer's perspective.

jak22

Opening accounts, transfers in and out of easy access, and ISA transfers using an electronic form at application that doesnt require any follow up all seem to proceed smoothly with notification emails and texts.

But looking at posts here and and trustpilot the common issue seems to be when you need to contact them by phone or message like to follow up an ISA transfer request, and so a concern for the future might be supplying maturity instructions in time to avoid an automatic re-investment.