Is this premium bonds money? How many have people taken out? Also what’s this game where everyone shouts out numbers in the 7000s 😂
Yes @Foxycafc - it's regular contributors to this thread declaring their winnings this month - they are normally published on or around 2nd of the month. You can hold up to £50,000 in premium bonds - the more you have the more chance of a win...tax free. The 7000's you mention are people guessing at the value of the FTSE at a certain date...just for a bit of fun.
That whole thing about current accounts dragging their feet about paying interest when interest rates are on the rise tells you everything you need to know about retail banking.
On another slightly hypocritical note given what I think of investment bankers I've opened a few funds to try and make up for the shellacking my employers gave my own pension a few years ago and seeing as any other way of ensuring a pension fund with my means is restricted to bank robbery or something else massively fraudulent
I've got a few funds now with HL and I've done a small amount into two funds of my own in particular one is the c*nt list, this is a batch of companies that test on animals, willfully pollute, gave at best questionable health and safety records, are anti-union, rip off the end user or are into selling arms to places like Saudi Arabia, China, Iran at al. The other is purely ethical businesses who are into sustainable projects, water solutions, organic farming, sustainable growth.
Most of you who have forgotten more than I'm ever going to know about this sort of thing will probably guess where this is going. The c*nt list was massively out-performing the good list until the turn of the year when the sustainable and responsible stuff picked up and is now out-perfomring the c*nt list
I think there's an idea for a new index or ETF in there :-)
Nothing for me, or either daughter this month. However the jammy Mrs R7L got £550, 1x £500 and 2x £25
And making me feel better my father in law also drew a blank!
Unbelievable!
every cloud. Think that's now two months in about 4.5 years he's not won, so he's still winning the family league table. Although I think my wife could well be ahead on the financials by now as she's had a good run.
I often transfer funds to H-L by debit card. They need max one working day.
I think you'll find that HL is likely taking the risk there and crediting you with the money before it clears.
Really? That's untypically customer -friendly from H-L. Wise also allow you to pay by debit card for a transfer of funds to a foreign account, and that is promised at the same speed as by setting up a bank transfer. I usually get a Wise transfer in my Czech bank account in 2-3 working days
So I think you are saying NS&I speed ("up to eight banking days") is perfectly acceptable? Harrumph!
Actually I'm due a biz meet with a regional director of Visa soon so if the environment is right I'll ask him how long such transfers should take. I've always assumed that they are 24 hours or so.
I often transfer funds to H-L by debit card. They need max one working day.
I think you'll find that HL is likely taking the risk there and crediting you with the money before it clears.
Really? That's untypically customer -friendly from H-L. Wise also allow you to pay by debit card for a transfer of funds to a foreign account, and that is promised at the same speed as by setting up a bank transfer. I usually get a Wise transfer in my Czech bank account in 2-3 working days
So I think you are saying NS&I speed ("up to eight banking days") is perfectly acceptable? Harrumph!
Actually I'm due a biz meet with a regional director of Visa soon so if the environment is right I'll ask him how long such transfers should take. I've always assumed that they are 24 hours or so.
It depends a bit on the route taken. Retail payments is about as far from my comfort zone as you get as it is incredibly dull but I've picked up a bit along the way. The UK clearing system still works on 3 days and even then, technically a bank has another half day to bounce a cheque, so for cheques, 3.5d. The limitation is in the Bank of Englands' mis-named RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) system that sits in the middle of the clearing banks.
I think the 7-10 days service level is a hang over from Building Societies and other smaller providers collecting and processing cheques once a week and then going through the 3 day process. There's no excuse for it today.
There is a thing called Faster Payments, which technically clears almost immediately, in practice in 2 hours. I think it achieves that by by-passing the clearing service and then in the background, and in parallel, goes through the usual system and is just reconciled and backed out later if there's a problem with funds. There are serious limitations in RTGS and the Clearing Banks' ability to manage the balance sheet risk of the large flows intra-day. The BoE are working on a genuine real time system but it will take a while to implement.
Direct debits and standing orders more or less follow the 3 day process, but with lots of rules about when they should be paid and how they can be backed out. Credit card payments are another thing altogether with various, seemingly endless middlemen passing along the payment and taking little slices off it in fees. That's even more tedious and boring. Debit cards follow the same 'payment rails' as credit cards but without the same credit implications and therefore a different 'contract' between parties (e.g. one checks if you have sufficient credit before approving, the other checks if you have sufficient funds).
As I say, not really my field and could be wrong about FPS but I am having a beer with a retail banking guru this evening (more fun than that sounds), so I'll ask him.
My first job after leaving school at 16 was with Midland Bank (now HSBC to you young 'uns). Spent the 2 years there mainly sorting & processing cheques. Can't believe in the following 40 years nothing has really changed & it still takes 3-4 days for a chq to clear.
My first job after leaving school at 16 was with Midland Bank (now HSBC to you young 'uns). Spent the 2 years there mainly sorting & processing cheques. Can't believe in the following 40 years nothing has really changed & it still takes 3-4 days for a chq to clear.
Nothing changed? You can scan them In remotely these days and not even present the physical item (within limits of course).
HMRC still send us some where I work, generally public sector does, but is also moving electronic at a good rate. When I started my career, about 10 years ago now, we paid everyone by cheque, and resisted moving over to bank transfers, with the main reason being that the time it takes with the supplier getting it and going to the bank, and it actually being processed, you've gained a good few days cashflow. We got everyone to pay us by bank transfer though!!!
To moan about the US again, we sell a lot to US retailers and some of them still insist on sending "checks" to us in the post. About 50% have that as their default when you start with them, and about half of those literally don't have the ability or authority to send an ACH or wire, and this is to a US bank account, nothing special.
Cheques are so tedious. I am curious as to why they even still exist...
My first job after leaving school at 16 was with Midland Bank (now HSBC to you young 'uns). Spent the 2 years there mainly sorting & processing cheques. Can't believe in the following 40 years nothing has really changed & it still takes 3-4 days for a chq to clear.
I think it’s more that other institutions haven’t updated their own systems/processes to allow us to benefit from the quicker clearing cycles we have now. Most UK banks use cheque imaging now and cheques are usually cleared by end of next working day. That allows for checks to be made to cover any stops/lack of funds etc. As @valleynick66 says, you can also just take a photo of your cheque these days and pay it in over your bank app, never having to go anywhere near a bank branch with it.
I’d almost forgotten I do the Postcode Lottery…they came through with £10 yesterday. First I’ve heard from them in a year or so. Still…that’s £10 better than Valley Gold over the last decade or so 🤷🏻♂️😉
I’d almost forgotten I do the Postcode Lottery…they came through with £10 yesterday. First I’ve heard from them in a year or so. Still…that’s £10 better than Valley Gold over the last decade or so 🤷🏻♂️😉
What do you mean better than Valley Gold. Over the past 10 years we've sold Gomez, Shelvey, Lookman etc. Millions were shared amongst VG members.....did you not get your cut 🙂.
As I say, not really my field and could be wrong about FPS but I am having a beer with a retail banking guru this evening (more fun than that sounds), so I'll ask him.
Update from the Bunch of Grapes. As I guessed, FPSL (Faster Payments Scheme Limited) intermediates Faster Payments between members who then later on push those through the BoE clearing system.
As for electronic capture of cheques clearing the same day, like Prague's HL experience, they will be credited on an optimistic basis but could be backed out up to three days later. It all comes back to RTGS, which operates on a 3 day cycle and that hasn't changed (yet). Any payment in Sterling is deemed to have wired through London, regardless of where it happens and that means clearing through the UK Clearing Banks with the BoE in the middle. (This principle is also why and how US sanctions and wire fraud has such reach, given that 60% of global assets are denominated in dollars.)
The FinTech stuff (mobile apps, etc) all use optimistic updates to give a better user experience and the appearance of immediacy. But I can promise you there are tons of recs going on behind the scenes and those payments will be backed out if they don't clear three days later. The only regulatory requirement on data integrity is that statements are accurate, which tends to be a once a month view, or, if on demand, you will notice will be a few days behind your screen ....
The thieving f*****s at SSE do for a start. When the Ofgem Ombudsman got them to pay me £50 as an apology for their thieving behaviour (started a thread on it, natch), they said, yes, we'll credit it to your account. When I pointed out that I don't have an account, as I had sold the house, which they already knew, they said they'll send a cheque. I said no, you won't, because I live abroad and nobody here even knows what a cheque is. So they basically haven't paid yet, even though they have my UK bank account details from which I had paid the amount I actually owed them. So thanks for reminding me that I need to nudge Ofgem yet again.
Comments
Happy with that
So I think you are saying NS&I speed ("up to eight banking days") is perfectly acceptable? Harrumph!
Actually I'm due a biz meet with a regional director of Visa soon so if the environment is right I'll ask him how long such transfers should take. I've always assumed that they are 24 hours or so.
I think the 7-10 days service level is a hang over from Building Societies and other smaller providers collecting and processing cheques once a week and then going through the 3 day process. There's no excuse for it today.
There is a thing called Faster Payments, which technically clears almost immediately, in practice in 2 hours. I think it achieves that by by-passing the clearing service and then in the background, and in parallel, goes through the usual system and is just reconciled and backed out later if there's a problem with funds. There are serious limitations in RTGS and the Clearing Banks' ability to manage the balance sheet risk of the large flows intra-day. The BoE are working on a genuine real time system but it will take a while to implement.
Direct debits and standing orders more or less follow the 3 day process, but with lots of rules about when they should be paid and how they can be backed out. Credit card payments are another thing altogether with various, seemingly endless middlemen passing along the payment and taking little slices off it in fees. That's even more tedious and boring. Debit cards follow the same 'payment rails' as credit cards but without the same credit implications and therefore a different 'contract' between parties (e.g. one checks if you have sufficient credit before approving, the other checks if you have sufficient funds).
As I say, not really my field and could be wrong about FPS but I am having a beer with a retail banking guru this evening (more fun than that sounds), so I'll ask him.
My first job after leaving school at 16 was with Midland Bank (now HSBC to you young 'uns). Spent the 2 years there mainly sorting & processing cheques. Can't believe in the following 40 years nothing has really changed & it still takes 3-4 days for a chq to clear.
In remotely these days and not even present the physical item (within limits of course).
To moan about the US again, we sell a lot to US retailers and some of them still insist on sending "checks" to us in the post. About 50% have that as their default when you start with them, and about half of those literally don't have the ability or authority to send an ACH or wire, and this is to a US bank account, nothing special.
Cheques are so tedious. I am curious as to why they even still exist...
that’s £550 so far this year. Very pleased with that 🙂
As for electronic capture of cheques clearing the same day, like Prague's HL experience, they will be credited on an optimistic basis but could be backed out up to three days later. It all comes back to RTGS, which operates on a 3 day cycle and that hasn't changed (yet). Any payment in Sterling is deemed to have wired through London, regardless of where it happens and that means clearing through the UK Clearing Banks with the BoE in the middle. (This principle is also why and how US sanctions and wire fraud has such reach, given that 60% of global assets are denominated in dollars.)
The FinTech stuff (mobile apps, etc) all use optimistic updates to give a better user experience and the appearance of immediacy. But I can promise you there are tons of recs going on behind the scenes and those payments will be backed out if they don't clear three days later. The only regulatory requirement on data integrity is that statements are accurate, which tends to be a once a month view, or, if on demand, you will notice will be a few days behind your screen ....
The markets get jittery on that sort of news.