Dumb questions, but...

[j4]

... I know it's possible to do a transfer of money from one bank account to another if you have the other person's sortcode & a/c number. Is the bank likely to charge for this? Does the amount that you're transferring have to be over a certain amount? Can you do it from any bank to any other bank, or is it only if you both bank with the same people?

TIA for advice. I know I probably should just phone the bank to ask stuff like this but I don't really want to sit on hold for half an hour... :-/

Comments

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

I've never been charged - I'm with smile. The smallest amount I've transferred is about £15, to a different bank. I'd be very surprised if you get charged - I'd imagine that it costs banks much less to do this than to process a cheque, which is the paper quivalent of doing the same thing.

[olithered.livejournal.com]

You also need to know their name. It will work from any bank to any other, and is usually free if you do it online. Not sure about over the phone or in person though.

It will take a few days to transfer (less if the bank is the same). I believe you can pay £20ish for a faster transaction.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Hadn't thought of doing it online! Still not really hip to the whole online banking thing. 8-) Done it once before over the phone but that was a couple of years ago & I couldn't remember if they'd charged me for it.

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's possible. It Just Works through the Lloyds web interface, don't know about other methods. I don't think they charge.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, works for Natwest Online...

[karen2205]

IME, if you're transferring to another bank/BS you have to use the 'bill payment' facility, rather than anything labelled 'transfers' (which seem to be for internal accounts).

However, it can take up to five working days for money to be credited to the account it's being transferred to (even though it leaves your account on the day you send it), so don't rely on it for getting money to someone speedily.....why it can't be done more quickly I've no idea, but this is the system we're stuck with.

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

I can transfer any amount from my (Barclays) current account to any sort code/account number combination in the country via their online service or their phone-banking service; it's free to me, as a personal customer, and free to the recipient, because it works a bit like remotely depositing a cheque into their account but without the paperwork. (It takes the usual cheque clearing cycle to clear, though; three days, unless it's to a Barclays account [same day] or cross-Border [four days].)

I've never done this in person, and suspect they'd prefer I did it online or by phone; their tariff only mentions a CHAPS (same-day) transfer, which is £20.

As regards other banks, the market in this country is sufficiently cut-throat that I'd be very surprised if any other bank differed more than slightly from Barclays. (Recent probably-irrelevant experience: I wanted to move some money from my ISA, which is with HSBC, into my current account; I have no other HSBC accounts, and the ISA doesn't qualify for phone banking, so the only options I had were to withdraw in cash, or to pay £10 to have them write a draft. I had a chat with a helpful lady, and gently pointed out (in not quite as many words) that I could ask to open an HSBC current account to do the transfer dance - thereby consuming lots of their time at negligible profit to them - and she suggested they could issue a cheque via their branch payments account and waive the fee seeing as it was a one-off. Of course, this still meant I had to go to my bank and pay the cheque in myself, but it's better than carrying the cash around.)

[rmc28]

I've been routinely using bill payments in online banking since HSBC launched a decent internet banking service soon after I graduated. I've used them in HSBC, Smile and Intelligent Finance, they have always been called bill payments and always been free, and what you need to give the bank is: sort code, account number, name and a reference (what will appear on their statement). The money transfer acts like a cheque only without the paperwork; i.e. a 3-5 day clearing time.

I know that it was possible to set them up with HSBC's phone banking, and I think everywhere that does bill payments allows you to set them up on the phone as well as the web.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Ah! I'm with HSBC, and I have internet banking (not that I use it very much so far), so it's good to have definite confirmation that It Can Be Done. Thank you. :)

[sparrowsion]

That reminds me -- did that online payment I did to you for folk festival tickets get through OK?

[j4.livejournal.com]

Looks like, yes. Thank you! *hugs*
(Do I still owe you money for that?)

[perdita-fysh.livejournal.com]

I know people have mostly covered all bases, but I thought I'd summarise because this is something I've had a few dealings with:

There are usually 4 ways you can transfer money between bank accounts:

Bank Transfer

usually internal to other accounts at the same bank/building society, generally happen same day or next day, usually no charge, usually available online

BACS payment

between accounts at different banks, usually have the same clearing period as a cheque as it is essentially the same process, usually no charge, usually available online

CHAPS Payment

between accounts at different banks, clears same day, usually charged for between £10-£30/transaction, never available online, often have to go into the branch

Telegraphic Transfer (TT)

between accounts at different banks, clears immediately, usually charged for significantly, never online, mostly used for mortgages etc

In my experience, Virgin One has the lowest CHAPS fees (it was £10 last I did it) and the sanest policy (you can set them up over the phone and they call you back to confirm only if the amount is over 2k). Natwest charge more (£25) and want you to come into the branch and it took years of arguing to get my business account allowed to do them over the phone. BACS is dead simple and I've transfered everything from £2.53 to £17k with no problem, the delay is annoying as it is only not-instant for historical reasons which are perpetuated with the intent to make the banks more money in interest off your money. Which sucks.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

My method with anything like this - withdraw the cash from your account, toddle along to a branch of the other person's bank, pay the cash in to their account. The transaction is instant and it's free.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Only works if their bank has a branch...

Also relies on having time to go and faff around banks during banking hours. Which I often don't.

[simont]

I had to do that once when setting up a shared rented house; one of my housemates-to-be needed to get £600 to me in a hurry so I could pay the initial deposit on time. We walked into his bank, and they told us we should do the transfer using real cash if we needed it that fast.

Walking through the centre of a town from one bank to another carrying £600 in ready cash is moderately stressful. Making my housemate-to-be let go of £600 in cash when we reached my bank was a lot more difficult!

[j4.livejournal.com]

Most I've ever carried around in cash was £1500... I had to get advance permission to withdraw that much though. And they still gave it to me in £20 notes! A bit stressful, but the woman who sold pto452 to me wouldn't take anything other than cash, so I didn't have much choice.

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

If you do it regularly you become immune to "think what I could do with all the cash in this bag". £6000 isn't too uncommon.

[simont]

I don't tend to have problems of the form "think what I could do with this cash", perhaps because I can never think of what I could do with that much cash which I couldn't do just as easily (if not more so due to absence of funny looks) with a credit card.

Mostly I worry "think how ghastly it would be if I were mugged"...

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

We transferred some dosh from our account to bopeepsheep's when she was in the US, so she could do a bit of shopping for us. No charge, done in person at the bank.