I’m buying a flat and I’ve put all the money I have for that in two interest-bearing pots.
On Friday, my solicitor tells me that we’ll be ready to exchange today (Monday) and that he needs the 10% deposit transferred into their bank account before that can happen. So I transfer the money from the pot into my main account. But all I see is a message saying that it’ll arrive in three days time.
“Ok,” I think, “that’s fine. Obviously it takes time to get money back from the savings company. Next business day is good. I’ll just transfer the money over when it arrives.”
But today, I have a closer look and when I click on the (still-pending) transaction, it gives more detail - the money is due by 17:00 today. Now, I don’t know how well you know solicitors, but the change of getting one of them working after 5pm is tiny. And you need two of them to do that in order to exchange on a property sale.
So it looks like I’ll be exchanging tomorrow, rather than today. I don’t think that will affect things. I expect we can keep with the same completion date.
I guess this is really more of a Public Service Announcement. If you want to get money out of an interest-bearing pot, then it might not arrive quite as quickly as you expect. When they say “next business day”, they actually mean “end of the next business day”.
If you have enough notice, then consider taking the money out a day earlier.
That’s the way that savings pots work - the fact of next day withdrawals is highlighted in the sign up flow from memory - so there’s little excuse for others with a savings pot not to be aware of the terms and conditions associated with them. Certainly, for those on the forum, it’s been raised often enough over the years.
I think it’s fair to point out though the potential timing of transfer might not be to people’s expectations.
I made a withdrawal from a pot on Friday, which arrived Monday at 13:25.
Couldn’t tell you if that’s the exact time on Friday I withdrew the money, but part of me anticipated the money would be in my account in the early hours of the morning - much like how direct debits and BACS payments are made at consistent times.
Absolutely agree with this and despite knowing about the inconsistencies and being able to allow for them I find it very frustrating. Where money is concerned we need certainty, and to me “funds available next business day” should mean by start of normal business hours - not at some random time before close of business.
I think this is yet another example of how Monzo doesn’t behave like a “grown up” organisation. I’m a big fan and have personal, joint and business accounts with them, but I’d like to see some time spent getting the fundamentals right rather than messing about selling shiny cards.
Pay for it? Why? This is pretty basic stuff, knowing when a scheduled payment from another bank account is going to arrive. Monzo should not need to loan you the money until it arrives - they should sort out the scheduling.
To be clear, I’m not worried about the money not arriving until the next working day. I think that’s perfectly clear and it’s what I was expecting. What took me by surprise was that it could be as late as the end of the next business day.
For some reason, I got it in my head that the transfer would take place overnight and the money would be in my account early on the next business day.
Yes, the money is with a third party. But it’s certainly possible to sort out scheduling those transfers.
It’s 13 years since I worked on outsourced savings accounts and it was possible to offer customers certainty then, so there’s absolutely no reason it can’t be done now if the effort is made.
Is there any reason why the withdrawal of money from a savings pot could fail? With a BACS payment they can ‘gurantee’ the money will arrive if it’s cleared Day X of Y (and so you get paid early).
I wonder if somewhere there’s some mechanism that could prompt the withdrawals to fail, and Monzo left with the liability if something goes wrong?
But I can’t think of any good reason (beyond a catastrophic failure) where the withdrawal could fail.
It’s interesting eitherway that BACS payments can be fronted, but these aren’t.
I think it would be better if the text below the withdrawal amount controls stated two working days to ensure people don’t end up with scenarios such as the OP described.
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tbutz
(🏳️🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")
21
I’ve finally closed my Investec pot, which has been my main pot since they came into effect, as well as my round-up destination (the interest rate is now silly, may as well relocate that money elsewhere).
When I click the greyed out credit item in my feed, I get this shown, which I think is a new addition, and certainly explains things quite clearly:
The BACS payments are fronted as they take 3 days to arrive and the money is guaranteed and cant be recalled at the point monzo allow you to claim the funds early.
