Banking Online: Payment referencing query

I use the online business banking service of Lloyds TSB, and it seems to me that the Payments facility is a bit defective. I've done a bit of preliminary carping about it to them by e-mail, and had an unsatisfactory response. I'll explain how I see things and then ask a couple of questions the answers to which will help me gird loins for the battle ahead.

(BTW, this was posted to uk.business.accountancy the other day, and they pointed me here.)

When I look on my own statements at an incoming BACS payment, I see the payer's name and (usually) a reference for the payment in question -- which might be a subscription number, a payroll number, or the like. I assumed that this is how the payments I made would appear to my own payees, but apparently not. When I set up a new payee I establish the account title, number and sort code; then I can specify a reference for ALL payments made to this payee. The reference may in some cases be constrained to a particular format if Lloyds TSB knows it's required, and otherwise it's free-format and may be blank. So far so reasonable, I suppose.

The problem is that payments made like this don't seem to carry the name of my company as the source of the payment. That field seems to be left blank. When I tackled the bank about it, they said that I'd have to include my company name in the reference field instead. So my questions are, are there other Lloyds TSB online banking users out there who've noticed this oddity, and do all banks do it this way?

Matti

Your company name (if that is the name of your account) can be sent as part of the message . This is dependant on Lloyds picking this information up and transmitting it to BACS. (this is ultimately where your payment goes) It also required the receiving bank to pick this information up and post it to the payees account, not all do. The reference field you talk of is always picked up and received.

TSB do (when sent to them by BACS) pick up payer name and post to their own customers accounts, as you have seen, although potentially payers have put their name in their reference field. As you are on the BB service, You should ask Lloyds to ensure that your account name is picked up and transmitted to BACS, they may have the system set up as per a personal account where this information is typically not transmitted. Then all you need is for the receiving bank to post this information to the payee.

Dont be fobbed off by putting your name in the reference field, thousands of other businesses using BACS do not have to. Other banks work in differing ways but for most their business customers can send name and reference.

To further complicate matters Lloyds "may" not use BACS for inter Lloyds payments, therefore the messaging format "may" be different. Best to ask - but email, then the help desky people may refer it to someone who knows, if they are unsure.