Halifax - cant pay bill online immediately?

Crinz

Hey folks, first time poster. I work for Halifax and can confirm that the changes to the web site were due to the new Faster Payment System that came in on 20th April.

The main difference is that the bank will no longer 'hold' your funds before the payment is sent.

i.e. Payment requested monday, funds usually taken immediately and held until tuesday then sent to arrive wednesday/thursday

the new way means that: payment requested monday, funds not taken til tuesday and payment gets there wednesday.

cutoff for amending/requesting payments changed from 8:30pm to 6pm as well. if you request a payment monday 7pm, it wont leave your account until wednesday.

YorkshireBoy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I'll report back.

@ Meltdown,

Not sure what went wrong with your request last week, because I've today (Monday at 00:10 and 08:00) been able to select a payment day of Tuesday, ie the next banking day.

Meltdown_2

Yes, I was able to do the same as you this morning. Perhaps they had some extra restrictions at the start of the exercise. Still slower than the previous system, but not as bad as last week.
I notice that the formatting of payees has gone from 'sentence' to 'all capitals'.
What's wrong with free-text/WYSIWYG?

Mikeyorks

Crinz wrote: »

the new way means that: payment requested monday, funds not taken til tuesday

Strange .... always worked that way for me. The funds never disappeared until the system had processed through Batch prior the next working day. Not disputing what you say ... as it mimics the very limited detail about the changes on the website :

http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/aprilonlinechanges.asp

.... possibly the fact that I always run bill payments direct from a Web account, never the current account? But if the cut off time has retreated ... would have been nice to see that in the link above. Equally the fact this is preparatory work for 'faster payments' - the Halifax seem more than a little guarded on that subject!

Mikeyorks

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I've just taken a look now and the earliest I can transfer is Tuesday 29th, which I'd expect since today isn't a bank working day.

But it (Sunday) is ... for the Halifax, as they run Batch on a Sunday night? I know I've made bill payments over a weekend before - and they have initiated on the Monday.
Not sure if this is just a start-up problem (you appear to have hit after the unpublicised new cut off time of 1800hrs?). Or a rather retrograde alignment in preparation for faster (?) payments.

Teggers_2

I've phoned up Halifax three times now to find out why they've changed their payment system.

From my understanding they said if you do a Bacs transfer after 6pm on a Friday, the payment will leave on the Tuesday and get to the account your transferring to on Thursday.

If you do a transfer before 6pm on the Friday, the payment will go through on the Monday and get to the other account on Wednesday.

They said it was in preparation for the faster payment system which will come in later in the year.

Right. When I used to make payments out of my Halifax account say on a Sunday evening, it stayed in pending and it didn't leave my Halifax a/c until the next working day, which is Monday and got to the other bank on Wednesday. Halifax are saying that the funds left my balance on the Sunday, which I think is incorrect.

I think that if you do the Bacs transfer on a working day before 6pm, it should leave the same day and get to the other bank on the third working day, i.e Monday before 6pm, it'll get to the other bank on Wednesday. Now if you do it on the Monday before 6pm, it'll leave on Tuesday and get there for Thursday.

So that means, I've lost one working day. When the faster payment system comes in, it may be different?

Anyway thank you for reading, it's been bugging me for the past couple of days.

YorkshireBoy

Teggers wrote: »

I think that if you do the Bacs transfer on a working day before 6pm, it should leave the same day and get to the other bank on the third working day, i.e Monday before 6pm, it'll get to the other bank on Wednesday.

That's how it is with 'real' banks. Halifax and A&L operate differently.

Now if you do it on the Monday before 6pm, it'll leave on Tuesday and get there for Thursday.

That's how it's always been with Halifax (at least in my time with them)...so where's the 'improvement'?

jem16

I prefer the old way of doing transfers too.

I had payment transfers set up to Sainsbury's Internet saver accounts. They were all treated as internal transfers and money left my HBOS account immediately and was received in my Sainsbury's account immediately. Now none of them work at all. The transfer is there in my transfer list within the account. I can put in how much I want to transfer and it then allows me to check it before pressing submit. However as soon as I press submit it gives an error message, "Sorry we can't process your request at this time. Please try later". It's been like this for days.

If I try to set up a new transfer to Sainsbury's it sets it up like an external one as Sainsbury's accounts only have a sort code and account number but no roll number. Previously I could select Sainsbury's accounts as an account with us but still use the sort code and account number.

So instead of an instant transfer, the earliest I could choose if I try now is 30th April.

I have emailed HBOS about this problem.

Mikeyorks

Dropped a note to Halifax and enquired about the apparent changes to the weekend activity. As I know I've initiated bill payments on Sat / Sun before ... and they've gone on the Monday. Now that is a Tue.

Unfortunately the reply covered everything but the specific question asked. The 'no material change' is right for weekdays ... but certainly not weekends? Do suspect they're aligning with the faster payments concept .. whereby SOs will only happen on 'working days'. Whereas 'instant payments' will be all days and 'diarised payments' ... can be either, depending on the Institution. But that seems odd as it's a retrograde step when considering they run Batch Sun night and could (indeed, used to) pick up the SO for Mon.

Copied the reply as it possibly firms up a few bits :-

I can confirm that there has been no change to the way that bill payments and transfers to external organisations are processed, and the timescales for payments to reach external accounts are actually exactly the same.

We did however, change the wording and way that we display the dates to provide more transparency and provide more flexibility to you.

Previously, you could go online and request to make an external transfer 'that day'. What actually happened was, those funds were 'reserved' until around 3am on the following day to be sent in our BACS payments batch. In reality the funds did not leave your account until the following day, but the change in your 'available balance' on the Online Service may have led you to believe that this transfer was actually happening instantly. This led to customer queries about the fact that it was sometimes taking 4 working days from the time the payment was actually submitted, rather than 3 working days - despite messages on the Online Service saying to allow 4 working days.

The new system will only allow you to select the next working day as this falls in line with industry standards and our calendar function will be able to tell you exactly on the screen when the funds will arrive with the other bank. For example, if you wish to request for a transfer to leave as soon as possible, you would select tomorrow's date. As soon as it gets to 00.01am tomorrow, the payment will be sent and the 3 working days timescale will take effect from then. This is almost exactly what happened before, but is more truthful in the information displayed to you.

Your available balance will not change, the amount will simply debit the account on the date that you choose on the calendar, and you must ensure that there are sufficient funds in the account by 11.59pm the day before the specified transfer date.

All future dated transfers will leave the account on the date that you specify.

Meltdown_2

Thanks for the quote, Mikeyorks.
My first reaction is that the quote is not entirely correct, but I will have to read it more carefully later ...