Santander and Nationwide still lagging on Faster Payments

More than five years after the banks agreed to implement the faster payments scheme of same-day transfers, daily limits are still an issue.

Daily limits on faster payments

If you're making a transfer from your bank account, make sure you don't get caught out by daily faster payments limits.

Which? has discovered that Santander and Nationwide can impose low maximum daily faster payments limits, meaning that if you exceed your allowance, your money could take much longer to arrive at its destination than you originally expected.

Santander can impose a limit of just £300for 24 hours, while Nationwide can impose a daily limit of £1,000. One Which?member got in touch with us after attempting to make two £250 transfers from his Santander account within a 24-hour period, only to find that the second was sent by Bacs. This can take at least three working days.

Five years on for faster payments

These limits are down to the banks' implementation of the faster payments scheme. The UK Payments Administration told Which?Money: 'The faster payments scheme itself places no barriers or limits on the number of daily transactions. Any that are put in are down to individual banks.'

You can see the various limits different banks place on faster payments on the UK Payments Administration website, which lists availability and limits for both one-off payments and standing orders.

Santander, who are currently offering a £100 incentive for current account customers to switch to them, were also the most complained about bank in 2010, and also came last in our customer satisfaction tables with a score of just 42%.