This means that whilst the transfer is instant, the effective statement date is based on whether before or after 18:30 local UK time.
Well, they have added some text to the transfer now stating, so I assumed it had changed :-
So they are stating, categorically, that for a UK sterling transfer the cut off is 18:00 GMT (19:00 BST).
Well my transfer was in time... 18:44 BST, but is dated the 16th.
Don't lie to me Barclays. And don't think of charging because I was £2 over drawn today because you did not do the transfer TODAY.
Also, one wonders why the hell the cut off is not 00:00:00 like normal clocks!
They probably don't understand the difference between saying "UK time" and "GMT". Microsoft Outlook used to make the same mistake, sending you invitations for a meeting at "11:30 GMT" when they meant "11:30 BST".
ReplyDeleteI know, then they added some stock line to "clarify" stating GMT did not allow for summer time offsets, or some such. Basically a phrase that clarified that they really did mean GMT and not BST, so making it worse!
DeleteProbably because their end of day batch run takes so long that they'd still be running it when business opened the next morning if they only started it at midnight. :)
ReplyDeleteWhy is there even a cutoff? I've transferred stuff from my First Direct account that's appeared instantly elsewhere at silly times of day.
ReplyDeleteThe money may be instant but the "banking date" will depend on a cut off. Why it is not midnight is beyond me - once upon a time it would have depending on batch jobs but these days why not just make it the actual date! The banking date is what matters for charges and interest and so on.
Delete"Once upon a time". Probably still today. Banking makes a lot of very conservative (in the sense of "It sort-of works, so lets never change it") IT decisions. If my employer is still using batch jobs to drive essential parts of its business (and they are), I have no doubt there are banks doing the same even if that makes no sense whatsoever to us technically.
DeleteSounds like a good reason to switch banks to me.
ReplyDeleteI suspect their use of "GMT" is thoughtless and they really mean "UK local time". Perhaps you could try transferring at 17:55 BST and 18:05 BST to check this?
ReplyDeleteThey use GMT in other places, e.g. stating my transaction was 18:44 (GMT+1)
DeleteI suspect this is another symptom of the confusion Microsoft have caused by trying to claim the UK is always in GMT even when we're actually in BST - they don't seem to understand the concept of changing timezone.
ReplyDeleteThis leads a. to people believing GMT = UK local always, and b. to great confusion scheduling meetings from Outlook with someone who doesn't use it as you get an invite stating a time in GMT that actually might mean BST!
The US, and hence the software industry in general, is used to having a name that means their timezone all year round. EST means Eastern Standard Time and it moves back and forth with daylight savings time. Same with PST, Mountain Time, Etc. I once worked for a Canadian company that insisted BST meant British Standard Time. They had written software that expected to quote one name for a timezone all year round, even if it changes for summer time. The software and the people that wrote it couldn't cope with needing two names for what they saw as one timezone.
DeleteThere are some states in the US that don't have Daylight Savings in a time zone where other states do (e.g. Arizona in Mountain Time).
DeleteTo add to the confusion, there are some states where the time zone changes on a county not a state line (e.g. Tennessee on Central and Eastern).
So even someone in the US or Canada should understand that local time is complex, unless of course they never think about anything outside their own state...
@Owen: actually EST is analogous to GMT; it's always the non-Daylight-Savings version; there is EDT for Daylight Savings.
DeleteEST being used for both is just the same ignorance that causes GMT to be used for both here.
Lloyds have a few cutoff times, that I know of.
ReplyDeleteTheir main one is 15:30, BST or GMT, where if you have a transaction leave your account with puts you over your overdraft limit, you have until 15:30 to put money in to stop being charged. Unless the transaction is a standing order, and then it will instantly bounce, and you will be charged.