Nationwide FlexAccount - BACS out?

rich68

Hi

Rather than hijack the other NW thread I thought I'd start a new one.

Does anyone know if you can transfer money to an account at another bank via BACS? My parents have twice tried to transfer money to the smile bank but on each occasion they were told to take out the cash from NW and pay it in themselves to smile, or alternatively they could pay £25 (presumably for CHAPS).

They don't have internet banking so they went in to the branch. They didn't want to set up a standing order since these were just one-off payments. If this is true, it could be one disadvantage of the flexaccount.

Thanks

whowants2brich

Hi,

From what I can remember, you should be able to set up a standing order and set the frequency to be just once. I know it's a hassle, but that's got to be easy. Just set the date of the first payment to be in say 10 days time, and that the date of the last payment is the same date. Or that the frequency is yearly and that you have plenty of time to cancel the standing order once it's gone through...

PS for big amounts and banks where customers don't have internet banking, I think that setting up such standing orders for one-off transactions is usually much better than filling in a BACS form each time. If you then want to do another transfer, you've got the standing order which you can then reactivate as necessary...

PPS I've had a FlexAccount for several years now, and haven't had any problems with this.

Good luck...

bigsy

The advantage of online banking is you don't need to do it that way. Simply set up a new single arrangement and you can easily make one-off payments. It works well.

Biggles

Write a cheque for the amount, fill out a bank giro credit slip (you may have to ask for one, they aren't so widely used as they used to be) with the details of the Smile account (inc sort code etc) and the amount, and hand it over the Nationwide counter together with the cheque.

(It's free and will take about three working days).

rich68

Thanks for your replies. The bank giro one looks very interesting. I think my parents would be happy with a frequency of 1 on a standing order too. They used to have internet banking until someone hacked into their account. NW is apparently reluctant to let them use it again now.

whowants2brich

Hi. I didn't think about that, but yeah, going into the bank where the funds are to be deposited, with a cheque from NW and a paying in slip with the account info, and that should work just fine. As someone's written, you have to wait a few days for BACS so you may as well wait a few days for the cheque to clear...

I think that there are too many banks out there giving people the option to do internet banking, and they've forgotten about all those who can't (or won't) for whatever reason. Small things like this that used to be possible all the time have been dropped, in favour of the internet transfers...

I hope you and your parents find a way to transfer the money that isn't too complicated...

Biggles

Trouble is, Smile is an internet bank, so there are no branches, hence my suggestion of the bank giro route. But it looks as though you can just send them the cheque with a paying-in slip, using Smile's Freepost envelope. Seems like the easiest way! Either that or pay it in at a Post Office or a Co-op Bank branch.

Chadsman

You can pay into a smile account at any Co-Op Bank branch or any Post Office (takes a bit longer).
Alternatively you could try to make a Payment from Nationwide using telephone banking.

rich68

Yes, in the end they just went to a Co-op branch instead which meant driving to another town.They didn't have a paying in slip so were a bit unsure about the post office. It sounds like the giro form would have been the best if it could all have been done at the NW branch. Telephone banking is another idea but I think you have to have already arranged the payment details with NW.

Thanks again for the ideas. I was just surprised that they couldn't do a straight forward BACS transfer like on the internet but in the branch.