Can anyone point me in the right direction for a bank that will provide business banking that can achieve an instantaneous transfer of money to a private individual, please?
What I mean is, my private banking is through First Direct and with them you can transfer funds via the internet banking instantaneously to someone else. Because I've been with them for over 15 years, I thought 'that was how it was done' generally. It seems not.
I have started my own business and needed a business account (unfortunately First Direct don't do business accounts) so I went with Natwest who are in my local town.
I went to a private individual's house last Friday to buy something, armed with my Natwest debit card and an internet phone (and the back up of having set up telephone banking), but couldn't buy it via the internet because I didn't have a card reader (business manager never mentioned it and I've never needed one with First Direct, so didn't even think of it)..
....no problem I thought, i'll use the telephone banking. That didn't work either, they make you wait until the next working day, so being a Friday that meant Mon morning.
In the meantime and having ordered the card reader, I've found out that the card reader system doesn't do instant transactions either.
I moaned to a mate about it and he suggested trying Lloyds. 15 mins waiting on their phone system and having pressed ' 1' for this and '3' for that, they confirmed they are the same as Natwest.
How come you can walk in to a business and pay for something instantaneously, but if you want to buy something privately off the same person, at the same venue, you have to wait? I cannot believe in the 21st century you have to wait like that, especially if some banks can achieve it.
Anyone got a business account that can cover the above?
The chap at Lloyds even suggested I transfer the monies into my First Direct private account, in advance, so that when I do the purchase at someone's house it can be done there and then. Can't imagine the accountant will be happy with that..or First Direct.
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As HSBC are First direct then I would assume they may be able to......however, it may be a banking scam to exploit business account holders by making them pay for a TT when they need a quick transfer.
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I use Barclays for my business banking. I can make payments online, but as to whether they are instant I don't know as I haven't done it yet. They give you a "pin sentry" with you put your debit card into, enter the PIN, and it displays a single use number you use to sign in.
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>> Can't imagine the accountant will be happy with that..or First Direct.
Your business can maintain a float in your private bank account provided all monies are accounted for appropriately at the end of the year.
You can also buy something for the company from your private bank account and "claim" the money back on an expense claim to your business.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 20 Dec 12 at 19:10
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>> How come you can walk in to a business and pay for something instantaneously,
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It's not instantaneous.
The commitment to buy is instantaneous, and on the strength of that the supplier may give you the goods. But if you look at your bank account it doesn't get debited instantly, and it takes up to 3 days to appear in the other person's account.
Similarly there is up to a 3-day delay before sales through our cardreader appear in our bank account (Barclays)
I pay staff salaries by internet transfer, which I presume is like BACS. The payments appear in our online account (Barclays) instantly, but that doesn't mean they have cleared. The clearing time varies depending on which bank it is being paid into.
A staff member banking at Barclays gets the money usually the same day. Another high street bank maybe the next day, or 2. Transfers to a small regional building society can take a week. If there is some error or glitch it can still bounce back - nothing irrevocable has actually happened - it's not like handing someone real money.
Even CHAPS fast payment isn't instantaneous. I think it could be, if banks processed the payments instantly, but they don't. They batch them up and have set times when they transmit them all together.
It seems strange that in an age of electronic transfers the concept of "clearing" still exists, but it does. Somebody, presumably the banks, must be making a lot of profit from money held in limbo somewhere.
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I sense some misgivings on this forum towards Santander but they do business banking. On my personal account I can transfer money "Instantaneously" in that I set up the transfer, they text me a one time PIN, I enter it and the transfer is done. I do not know how long it actually takes to be in the recipients account as cleared funds.
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We have a joint Current Acct. I opened a separate acct many years ago for expenses. I now use it for my part-time earnings which are paid in direct or by cheque and pay-in slips.... easy to track the ins and my receipts and mileage for the outs.
Unless the OP business is a limited company or the transactions as a sole trader are substantial I would just open another current account in my name with your existing Bank.
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>> We have a joint Current Acct. I opened a separate acct many years ago for
>> expenses. I now use it for my part-time earnings which are paid in direct or
>> by cheque and pay-in slips.... easy to track the ins and my receipts and mileage
>> for the outs.
I did the same when when I was doing a lot of travelling and working at locations away from military bases. All my expenses were paid into and out of a separate personal account.
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Thank you for your replies.
HSBC is not an option unfortunately as they no loner have a branch anywhere near. There was one 8 miles away, but it's now 17 miles away and i'm not prepared to do a 34 mile round trip for the bank.
I'll investigate Barclays.
I know there are banks that can do it, because A, First Direct can...and B, a couple of weeks ago I had someone at my house who transferred funds in my living room on his I-pad, whilst I went upstairs and checked my home computer. Less than 5 mins and the funds were in there. I wish I'd asked him who he banked with.
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I bank with Barclays and it does the quick transfers, but this is a personal account. But sometimes it has taken longer - occasionally the fast interbank transfer mechanism has been down.
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My Barclays Business Account takes about 10 minutes to get to my wife's HBOS Account.
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Business banking query - Duncan
