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Bank transfer payment times

paulfromcamden

paulfromcamden

Baffled
I made a payment online by bank transfer last week to an account co-incidentally with the same bank. It's an account I've made transfers to before. It took two days to go through.

I sent the bank a message about it and they've told me that transfers with a reference can take up to two days. Transfers without a reference are instant.

Does that sound right? I don't understand what difference it would make.
 
paulfromcamden said:
I made a payment online by bank transfer last week to an account co-incidentally with the same bank. It's an account I've made transfers to before. It took two days to go through.

I sent the bank a message about it and they've told me that transfers with a reference can take up to two days hours. Transfers without a reference are instant.

Does that sound right? I don't understand what difference it would make.
Click to expand...

As Jez might say 'buzzcocks'.

DV
 
I'm no expert, but why should that stop me, ha ha?

I don't think I've ever had a faster payment take longer than minutes, and that includes all those for stuff I've bought from fellow pfmers, when I always put Marchbanks as a reference.
 
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The other odd thing was that the standard txt the bank sent listed the recipient as 'null'.

Hmm. Makes me wonder if the bank is stringing me a line to cover up a hiccup of some sort.
 
Always been instant here. Sold my car the other month and the guy paid by transfer. Was there in my account within seconds. He wouldn't have driven it away otherwise.
 
paulfromcamden said:
I made a payment online by bank transfer last week to an account co-incidentally with the same bank. It's an account I've made transfers to before. It took two days to go through.

I sent the bank a message about it and they've told me that transfers with a reference can take up to two days. Transfers without a reference are instant.

Does that sound right? I don't understand what difference it would make.
Click to expand...

i cannot see why it would take longer with a reference... what sort of reference are they referring to??!
 
paulfromcamden said:
I made a payment online by bank transfer last week to an account co-incidentally with the same bank. It's an account I've made transfers to before. It took two days to go through.

I sent the bank a message about it and they've told me that transfers with a reference can take up to two days. Transfers without a reference are instant.

Does that sound right? I don't understand what difference it would make.
Click to expand...
It can take a day to a few days sometimes. New fraud checks delay things I think.
 
The op’s post makes sense to me. A bank now has a duty of care in respect of its account holders ie a bank should not knowingly open an account for example which will be used for illegal purposes.

Banks have software which “reviews” the narrative accompanying payments. No narrative can mean a fast transfer of funds (this might not be the case if cash is transferred to an account with a small bank).

In the days when I used to send and receive money from around the world, A bank once refused to credit the account because the narrative was something like “attn Fred Blogs” and Fred Bloggs (who was a colleague of mine) was a name on an international sanctions list. Just to be clear, the name was not Fred Bloggs but obviously I cannot give his true name (he was obviously not the offending person).

I also spent over a year trying to get some funds credited back to our account after a colleague made a payment and used the word “Syria” in the narrative.

Banks can be very sensitive about cash transfers as the fines for breaching sanctions are enormous. It’s also good practice from a bankers perspective to check and double check to ensure that they are not being used in some sort of illicit practice.

If you are transferring funds to accounts with the high street or major international banks then there should not be a problem. Just be careful with the narrative.
 
Always seems to be instant for us out of Barclays, could do with a decent excuse for it not to be at the moment!

Paid in a load of cash at the PO last week and it showed on my account by the time i was back in the office.

In the olden days it was a bit more complicated, had to actually call the bank manager and ask him to do the transfer. Took 5 minutes.

For Prudential it's 18 months and still waiting.
 
It seems to be a bit of a lottery...

Creeky old legacy systems with band aids all over them whilst the bank's just pocket as much profit as they can.

I mean they really have one job to do right...take our money and keep it safe (LOL) and make sure we can move it to someone fast?
 
I would understand it better if the 'without reference' was taking longer.

All my stuff seems instant - paid the carpet and flooring chap yesterday in about 30s flat - even entering the data included.
 
Almost instant with Nat West. They send a text when I am paying someone new in addition to the card thingy. I think the banks have upped their game since Covid started.
 
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