Shall I use chaps or faster payment on completion?

cherry76

Faster payment is free up to £100,000 a day with NW, will have to do it three times. Chaps cost £15. I have already got the solicitors details set up in my computer and have paid him before by faster payment. Which one would you choose pl? Thanks

tacpot12

I'd choose CHAPS. Much more certain to arrive as a single payment. Three payments runs the risk of one of them failing or getting caught in Anti-money Laundering checks. 

cherry76

Thanks very good advice, never thought about anti laundering checks.

saajan_12

Where is the money now - in a savings account / current account / tied up in a house you're selling / pending a mortgage draw down.. ?

Assuming
* 250k (as you say you'll need to spread over 3 transfers so its between 2-300k)
* 4% interest rate in a savings account
Then daily interest is ~£27 earned on the whole thing. So if you pay even part of it 1-2 days early, you're losing more than the £15 fee. 

If its tied up, then by the time you get the money, you may not even have the time to spread out the payments. 

I suppose if its in a current accoutn earning 0 then the above doesn't apply, but then if you're trying to save £15, the less stressy way for me would be transfer to a savings account with the same institution temporarily (provided you can transfer between your own accounts without issue)

Broader lesson: fees sting, but always think of the bigger picture when large sums are involved. 

bobster2

I assume you're transferring this to your solicitor's client account? So you will normally need to do this at least a day before completion.

So there could be time to sort out issues if faster payments triggered a bank fraud detection algorithm. I had some faster payments trigger a block on my account - but was able to sort it out with a phone call.

Having said that - for the sake of £15 I'd just recommend doing CHAPS the day before completion.

Vectis

Really, what's £15 in the context of the costs of buying a house?

If it ensures it gets there when it should without any problems, I'd just pay it.

EssexHebridean

We see the majority of clients using faster payments and spreading payments across a couple of days. Always good advice to contact your bank and let them know in advance that you will be shifting a large sum of money, why, and to who it will be going, as well.