Can I insist on an electronic payment?

blueminimum

As executor of a will I have several payments to make to beneficiaries.  Does anyone know if I can insist that these payments are made by electronic bank transfer as we do not have a cheque book?

Flugelhorn

presume it depends if the beneficiary has online banking - if they don't then you could get a cheque book for the account

The_Unready

I'm not sure the recipient needs online banking to receive a bank transfer................

p00hsticks

Personally when I was an executor I went with crossed cheque payments as I felt it was easier for me to be able to monitor that the payment had been received by the correct person and show that it had been accepted and paid in. I had dozens of beneficiaries to pay out to, and I'd already discovered by the time I was ready to pay out to them that they were not all good at replying to my e-mail communications or getting back to me when requested to acknowledge receipt of things. 

But I don't think the checks on setting up new payees were quite as thorough then as they are now so you can be more confident that you have the correct bank details (assuming you can get the beneficiaries to give them to you). 

etienneg

blueminimum said:

Does anyone know if I can insist that these payments are made by electronic bank transfer as we do not have a cheque book?

No. Although I prefer electronic payments, not everyone does.

You give a pretty limp reason, though, as you can easily acquire a cheque book!

Flugelhorn

The_Unready said:

I'm not sure the recipient needs online banking to receive a bank transfer................

good point - I presume some people don't like giving out their bank details.

I know when I had to pay out t beneficiaries it was easier to write 7 cheques and print 7 covering letters than to chase them all up for the account details (they didn't all have emails )

Marcon

blueminimum said:

As executor of a will I have several payments to make to beneficiaries.  Does anyone know if I can insist that these payments are made by electronic bank transfer as we do not have a cheque book?

What are you going to do if a beneficiary refuses to provide their bank details?

born_again

etienneg said:

blueminimum said:

Does anyone know if I can insist that these payments are made by electronic bank transfer as we do not have a cheque book?

No. Although I prefer electronic payments, not everyone does.

You give a pretty limp reason, though, as you can easily acquire a cheque book!

While you can, not everyone is happy to receive them, especially if your bank does not have the facility in the APP to process them, or it is over the pay in limit.

Savvy_Sue

If you can't get a cheque book on the account, then you can probably ask the bank to raise a cheque, for which there will be a fee, which will be deducted from the beneficiary's payment. As long as people know this in advance ... 

We made most of our payments by BACS, but the distribution once the house had sold was way over the daily limit, so we asked my siblings how they'd like to have their payments. CHAPS would have been fast, safe and secure, but at a cost. They all agreed to have a cheque sent to them (we had a cheque book on the account). Fortunately none got lost in the post. 

user1977

Savvy_Sue said:

CHAPS would have been fast, safe and secure, but at a cost. 

More or less than the interest lost by having to wait for a cheque to arrive and clear?

Savvy_Sue

user1977 said:

Savvy_Sue said:

CHAPS would have been fast, safe and secure, but at a cost. 

More or less than the interest lost by having to wait for a cheque to arrive and clear?

Well indeed ... Probably did save money with a cheque: interest rates weren't so great back then, and it wasn't an eye-watering amount. Of course I didn't have to wait for the post to arrive, since I was writing the cheques, but I don't think I had time to get to the bank before the weekend (and again, this is before you could take a photo of a cheque to pay it in!)

My choice would have been CHAPS, but I was over-ruled ...