What does your bank do in this situation

molerat

Santander have deleted some of my long unused payees.  Don't know the timescale though.

Strombidae

I can confirm that Barclays do this too. I don't bank with Barclays myself but my father does and I sometimes need to help him with his online banking.

A couple of weeks ago he wanted to make a Faster Payment to one of his savings accounts held elsewhere but the payee details had disappeared. When we investigated further it was the only payee where the last payment had been made just over twelve months ago and we had to input the details afresh.

I understand why banks do this, but I agree with the OP that it is rather frustrating, particularly when you are sending money to one of your own accounts and you know the details haven't changed.

pridehappy

I would say Lloyds Bank has been the worst by far for payments, both my and my child's current accounts won't even sometimes allow us to set up new payees and they don't know why. Plus, randomly deleting details even sometimes after 2 weeks of setting them up.

I've only been with Nationwide for a few months now, although seems to be okay. I've seen other people explaining that the details deleted after 13 months were Nationwide, although can't confirm if this is true or not.

I was with first direct for a while and they seemed to keep the payee details for a long time, although did find their payments a little bit of a hassle.

I've had my Santander current account for the longest - some of the payees haven't been used for 5/6 years and are still present.

Vortigern

First direct certainly used to delete payees after 13 months inactivity. I've not experienced this recently; I've no inactive payees at present.

MoneySavingTart

First direct confirmed to me yesterday that they deleted after "a year or so"
told them that was a deal breaker.

CKhalvashi

Vortigern said:

First direct certainly used to delete payees after 13 months inactivity. I've not experienced this recently; I've no inactive payees at present.

HSBC do also, I believe they share some systems.

It's fine until something needs to be paid quickly, but from a personal account there aren't many one off payments that need to be made in our case.

MalMonroe

I've been with Nationwide for five years and never had any problems with them at all. So, I'd have to say that my bank doesn't do anything in that same situation.

But I do know that banks don't give out rewards or kudos for loyalty. One of my friends has been with Yorkshire Bank for donkeys' years and is continually being disappointed by them, saying 'you wouldn't think they'd treat loyal customers like that, would you?' I keep saying 'yes, I would actually'. But she's still with them and thinks they are independent and who am I to burst her bubble.

Like you say, there is always switching. And you could get rewarded for doing so. Definitely worth thinking about if you're not happy with Nationwide. I'd like to say they'd be sorry to lose your custom but sadly I doubt they would. 

Section62

MalMonroe said:

I've been with Nationwide for five years and never had any problems with them at all. So, I'd have to say that my bank doesn't do anything in that same situation.

Nationwide definitely delete payees after 13 months of non-use. The OP isn't making it up.

It may be that you've never had a payee reach the 13 month threshold for deletion?

born_again

MoneySavingTart said:

First direct confirmed to me yesterday that they deleted after "a year or so"
told them that was a deal breaker.

Why is it a deal breaker, when you have not made any payments to that entity for over a year & their details may no longer be valid. It is the bank protecting you from making a payment to the wrong details.
It is only the same as a DD is invalid after 13 months of inactivity.

MACKEM99

MoneySavingTart said:

Thanks for all your replies. Somehow my notifications got turned off so I'll do a global reply.
Yes it is the Nationwide, the bank that likes to say no!
Curious that a friend told me that Barclays do prune lists but he was unsure over what period.
I'd not mind if say once a year NW said we are about to delete these entries, let us know within 30 days you want to keep any. They have also refused to put them in the list of recently deleted payees which would mean could be readily restored.
I'm leaning towards Halifax/Lloyds so I will talk to them next and try and extract a written reply on their policy.
Yes I will be keeping a list of payees in future but $ods law says I'll not be able to find the one I need when the time comes!

KRs
MST

As nationwide say themselves ..proud to be different!😃