Internet banking

It uses BACS which should take 2 working days eg send money monday, money arrives wednesday.

I have had some payments arrive "next day" for utility bills however, so perhaps these get sent in bulk via CHAPS.

It's normally three working days if you're lucky, four if you're not. If the payment is going to the same bank it will be instantaneous.

The problem is this:

Bill payments are sent through the BACS system. This is a central clearing house which all the banks are members of.

You can send same day payments if you wish, via CHAPS. There is often at least a 20 fee for this service.

While there is still money to be made from this, bill payments will always take 3 or 4 working days.

I agree though... in this age of growing technological involvement in the banking systems it seems surprising that paperless transfers cannot be cleared within the same day, or at most by the next day.

I agree with this. Most banks now open for at least a few hours on a Saturday, so they clearly are working. The Royal Mail has finally classed Saturday as a working day, so why can't the banks?

Unless it's Alliance and Leicester, in which case it still takes a day to "clear".

KotF

"Reverend Parson Peter Parsnip" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.teranews.com...

Surely it's down to BACS rather than the individual banks themselves, as BACS control the transfer process.

I was under the impression that the banks run BACS in the first place?

Its the bank making some extra money on interest, if they did it instantly, you interest would go down, or charges would go up to compensate for it.

You're such a cynic. The original question was quite genuine.

Followups overridden.