BACS Payments

Ironic Namesake · 30 Dec 2011 at 06:49

According to Natwest , you can no longer make BACS payments from now on - only faster payments. Has anyone come across this so far? Bit annoying to be honest .. the account I need to transfer to regularly doesn't have faster payments enabled

arknor · 30 Dec 2011 at 06:52

isnt it basicly the same thing as they both use the same details ? or does your bank charge for faster payments?

i know with my bank bacs is instant to other faster payment participating banks which i guess is all of them now.
theres a nationwide faq and on it
Do I have a choice on whether a payment is sent via Faster Payments or Bacs?

No. Following a European wide review of payment processes, new regulations have been introduced that state from 1st January 2012 Nationwide must ensure that any payments we make on your behalf arrive at the destination bank or building society no later than the end of the next working day. Payments sent via BACS are not compliant with the Regulations and we cannot use this method from 1st January 2012. Therefore, if the sort code you need to send a payment to has been enabled to receive Faster Payments then this is how your payment will be sent.

sounds like you dont have a choice but if the other bank doesnt accept faster payments it will still get to them as bacs anyway

Trifid · 30 Dec 2011 at 07:24

arknor said:
sounds like you dont have a choice but if the other bank doesnt accept faster payments it will still get to them as bacs anyway

This is what I was told when I made a Faster Payment a couple of years ago.

Ironic Namesake · 30 Dec 2011 at 07:57

Trifid said:
This is what I was told when I made a Faster Payment a couple of years ago.

Well this seems to have changed - tried to make a payment to my own account with another bank and it wouldn't let me make the payment as the receiving account doesn't have faster payments. Tried phone banking and also the same thing

Swifty55 · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:45

Ironic Namesake said:
Well this seems to have changed - tried to make a payment to my own account with another bank and it wouldn't let me make the payment as the receiving account doesn't have faster payments. Tried phone banking and also the same thing

Get it activated then?

Ironic Namesake · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:06

Swifty55 said:
Get it activated then?

Get what activated then?

If your bank is part of faster payments it's there automatically - not something you need to get activated.

Anyway, I've spoken to the bank (HSBC) I was trying to pay into - the only way is either to do a CHAPS payment in (£25-30 a pop from the sending account) or to make faster payments to a normal HSBC account then forward on from there - bit of a hassle.

HSBC International didn't even seem to be aware of any changes from 1st January

BDEE · 30 Dec 2011 at 18:36

The changes are due to changes in EU legislation which require all domestic payments for major insitutions to be received at the most by the following working day, which renders the BACS system defunkt and it will therefore be turned off.

It WILL be your responsibility to ensure that the receiving account will accept a faster payment, however if you try to make a payment to one then most banks will be able to tell you when you try to make the payment as most will reject them (this is expected to be in cases <1% of the time).

As an alternative, the payment must be made by CHAPS. The bank I work for will make the CHAPS payment free of charge where it has been identified that the receiving back is unable to accept the faster payments method, but this may not be the same for all banks.

The vast majority of all our financial institutions will be able to send and receive faster payments, so the impact is going to be negligible and for 99.99% of transactions it is only a good thing since banks will no longer have the option to send via BACS, which results in a longer transfer time for you.

Dave · 30 Dec 2011 at 19:30

Ironic Namesake said:
Well this seems to have changed - tried to make a payment to my own account with another bank and it wouldn't let me make the payment as the receiving account doesn't have faster payments. Tried phone banking and also the same thing

I've had this problem just now trying to transfer some cash from my Halifax account to my NatWest account - Halifax won't process the transaction as it says that NatWest isn't signed up to the faster payment services. Don't suppose you tried popping into branch to ask about it? I was just planning to leave it and do it on Monday under the assumption that all will be au-fait by then, but this is laziness on my behalf rather than proactiveness

neil_g · 30 Dec 2011 at 19:39

Ironic Namesake said:
Get what activated then?

If your bank is part of faster payments it's there automatically - not something you need to get activated.

Anyway, I've spoken to the bank (HSBC) I was trying to pay into - the only way is either to do a CHAPS payment in (£25-30 a pop from the sending account) or to make faster payments to a normal HSBC account then forward on from there - bit of a hassle.

HSBC International didn't even seem to be aware of any changes from 1st January

That's interesting, HSBC support fast payments. At least transferring in and out to Halifax is done instantly in most cases

:confused:

[TW]Fox · 30 Dec 2011 at 20:06

He's talking about an overseas HSBC account I suspect.

neil_g · 30 Dec 2011 at 20:10

[TW]Fox;20913511 said:
He's talking about an overseas HSBC account I suspect.

Good spot, didn't see location

mattyfez · 30 Dec 2011 at 20:30

I generally transfer funds online, interbank payments are same day... I have found doing OTC transfers inconvenient, as the bank staff usually start banging on about different methods of transfer.