FirstDirect online payments

Dagobert
Dagobert Posts: 1,625 Forumite
in Budgeting & bank accounts
I made a few one-off payments. Now I would like to delete them. Am I just being stupid or is it really not possible to delete payments?!
Dagobert
«1

Comments

  • Rafter
    Rafter Posts: 3,850 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    If you made immediate payments dated today you probably can't.

    It is possible to edit and cancel payments made in the future though.

    To cancel payments made online today give them a call and see whether they can stop payment being processed. I don't think the payments enter the BACS system until late in the afternoon.

    Good luck!

    R.
    Smile :), it makes people wonder what you have been up to.
  • Dagobert
    Dagobert Posts: 1,625 Forumite
    Sorry, maybe I didn't express myself clearly enough:

    I do not want to cancel the payments. Now that these payments have gone though, I want to delete the payee from my payments drop-down box because I will never send them another payment.
    Dagobert
  • Caped_Avenger
    Caped_Avenger Posts: 214 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    No, you can't delete the details. They need to stay on the system for audit purposes. They can be amended though.

    What were the beneficiaries? Credit Card providers, other personal accounts?
  • Dagobert
    Dagobert Posts: 1,625 Forumite
    Hello again, Iwas waiting for you to chip in ;).
    Caped_Avenger wrote:
    No, you can't delete the details. They need to stay on the system for audit purposes. They can be amended though.
    Funny that. Some banks' online interfaces allow to set up and delete payees anytime, for instance Cahoot and Norwich and Peterborough BS. A&L's payments can be deleted via phoneline and I thought that was bad enough.
    Caped_Avenger wrote:
    What were the beneficiaries? Credit Card providers, other personal accounts?
    Other personal accounts.

    With that kind of interface I wonder, are people assumed to use cheques for non-recurring payments? I don't tend to use cheques although it would be a damned side quicker compared to a 5-minute login process on a dial-up connection.
    Dagobert
  • Caped_Avenger
    Caped_Avenger Posts: 214 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Yeah, the system is strange, but if the details were deleted, it would delete all details of the payment that you've made, which needs keeping. Maybe the other banks allow you to delete the destination, but keep records of historical transactions seperately?

    If they are other personal accounts, there's a simple workaround. Phone CS, tell them you're not going to use the destiantion again, and say you want to amend the details on it. Change the beneficiary name, sort code and account numbr to your name, sort code and account number. Change the reference that you put on the reference to "my account", and then the job's done. Even if you accidentally click on it in the next 13 months (*), you shouldn't have any major problems.

    * - Beneficiaries that you haven't used in 13 months disappear from the system after this time. One that i last paid on 08/11/2004 has just dropped off in the last week, and a guy i last paid on 25/11/2004 should disappear on Christmas/Boxing day.
  • Dagobert
    Dagobert Posts: 1,625 Forumite
    Caped_Avenger wrote:
    Yeah, the system is strange, but if the details were deleted, it would delete all details of the payment that you've made, which needs keeping. Maybe the other banks allow you to delete the destination, but keep records of historical transactions seperately?
    Probably.


    And another thing that bugs me:
    When you use an '&' in the reference or name field it is translated to 'AND'. Now that is totally stupid because the field has a maximum of x characters and once an '&' has been changed to 'AND' the field is 2 characters (per ampersand) longer and therefore potentially exceeds the length limit, in which case FirstDirect's software drops the trailing characters.

    If you happen to have two similar payee names which need the last 2 characters to tell them apart as I did, well, then you're stuffed.


    If you want to see a really good, plain and simple, online banking interface, look at Norwich and Peterborough's. I've seen 6 current account online interfaces and that's the best so far.
    Dagobert
  • Caped_Avenger
    Caped_Avenger Posts: 214 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Dagobert wrote:
    And another thing that bugs me:
    When you use an '&' in the reference or name field it is translated to 'AND'. Now that is totally stupid because the field has a maximum of x characters and once an '&' has been changed to 'AND' the field is 2 characters (per ampersand) longer and therefore potentially exceeds the length limit, in which case FirstDirect's software drops the trailing characters.
    Yeah, but i don't think that's the whole story.

    I think it changes "&" to " AND ", i.e. it puts an extra space at the start and end of the word, therefore changing a single character into 5! Actually, i've just checked, and it does.

    Therefore, if you input your beneficiary name was "Julian & Katherine" (18 characters exactly, the length of the field), it would be reduced to "Julian and Kathe", losing the last 4 characters. in this example, it's not that much of a problem, but i can see how it could be.
  • Dagobert
    Dagobert Posts: 1,625 Forumite
    Caped_Avenger wrote:
    if the details were deleted, it would delete all details of the payment that you've made, which needs keeping.

    If they are other personal accounts, there's a simple workaround. Phone CS, tell them you're not going to use the destiantion again, and say you want to amend the details on it. Change the beneficiary name, sort code and account numbr to your name, sort code and account number.
    Come to think bout it - these two statements contradict each other.

    All that this record contains is the name and a/c details - not the payment history. If this record needed keeping, why would CS be allowed to change all details?
    Dagobert
  • Caped_Avenger
    Caped_Avenger Posts: 214 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Dagobert wrote:
    Come to think bout it - these two statements contradict each other.

    All that this record contains is the name and a/c details - not the payment history. If this record needed keeping, why would CS be allowed to change all details?
    Not quite.

    Changing the details simply changes the details that show on the "front-end", if you like. The history is still there, buried underneath.

    If the destiantion is completely erased, all historical details go along with it.

    I'm not saying it makes anysense, but that's the way it works ;)
  • Dagobert
    Dagobert Posts: 1,625 Forumite
    Caped_Avenger wrote:
    If the destiantion is completely erased, all historical details go along with it.

    I'm not saying it makes anysense, but that's the way it works ;)
    If someone from FD's IT department was to confirm that one, I'd eat my hat. ;)
    Dagobert
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