Bank holidays and Child Benefit payments

dreamersanchez · 04-05-2014 4:20pm #1

Has anyone else payment not gone into their bank for the long weekend?

Big Bag of Chips · 04-05-2014 5:07pm

I didn't know it was supposed to. Won't it be there Tuesday as always?

Hello Lady! · 04-05-2014 5:09pm

on bank holidays it depends on who you bank with when you get the money. BOI and some other banks usually have it in on Friday night or Saturday other banks are the normal Tuesday. however this month, due to Ireland joining SEPA and Thursday being a bank hol in most of Europe a lot of payments which would normally go in on Saturday were delayed til next week.

Chattastrophe! · 05-05-2014 8:21am

Yeah it's basically because BOI aren't yet SEPA-compliant, those with BOI accounts received their payment on Saturday, which is apparently the norm for a bank holiday weekend. All other banks should (as far as I know) receive it on Tuesday. And I'd expect BOI to be the same in future, once they catch up with the SEPA thing.

We're only due our first payment on Tuesday, and I'd never heard about it being paid on Saturdays for bank holiday weekends until now, so I wasn't expecting an early payment ... it would suck for those who were relying on it though, it would've been decent of them to let people know.

Big Bag of Chips · 05-05-2014 8:28am

I'm just curious though - that if it's always paid on Tuesday why a bank holiday would make any difference to that? Or why it should be paid earlier? I've been getting it for 9 years, and have to admit I can't remember ever noticing if it was in early on a Bank Holiday before.

OU812 · 05-05-2014 8:31am

A bank holiday shouldn't affect any electronic payment. It's automated & digital, it should require no physical intervention (or changing of dates).

It sounds to me like the banks are sitting on the payment & using sepa as an excuse.

diveout · 05-05-2014 8:38am

OU812 wrote: »

A bank holiday shouldn't affect any electronic payment. It's automated & digital, it should require no physical intervention (or changing of dates).

It sounds to me like the banks are sitting on the payment & using sepa as an excuse.

It shouldn't but it does. A lot of payments were affected by the May 1st holiday in Europe.

Chattastrophe! · 05-05-2014 9:26am

Big Bag of Chips wrote: »

I'm just curious though - that if it's always paid on Tuesday why a bank holiday would make any difference to that? Or why it should be paid earlier? I've been getting it for 9 years, and have to admit I can't remember ever noticing if it was in early on a Bank Holiday before.

It's not that it "should" be paid earlier, but apparently it's been done that way every bank holiday for years now. And there are people out there who paid bills during the week, with the intentions of doing their food shop on Saturday when the money arrived, and they were left with nothing when it didn't come. SW weren't under any obligation to inform people of the change, but I think it would have been decent of them to do so as a matter of courtesy, so that families could budget accordingly.

Hello Lady! · 05-05-2014 9:58am

OU812 wrote: »

A bank holiday shouldn't affect any electronic payment. It's automated & digital, it should require no physical intervention (or changing of dates).

It sounds to me like the banks are sitting on the payment & using sepa as an excuse.

it arriving early on bank holiday weekends is more to do with the working practices of public sector workers than anything to do with the banks.

OU812 · 05-05-2014 10:40am

Hello Lady! wrote: »

it arriving early on bank holiday weekends is more to do with the working practices of public sector workers than anything to do with the banks.

But it shouldn't. It's a file they upload weekly/monthly. The same date should be specified on it every time & the transfer should go through wether it's a bank holiday or outside of banking hours.

Big Bag of Chips · 05-05-2014 10:51am

OU812 wrote: »

But it shouldn't. It's a file they upload weekly/monthly. The same date should be specified on it every time & the transfer should go through wether it's a bank holiday or outside of banking hours.

So if it's due on Tuesday as always, why would it be expected to be there the previous Friday? If it's automated the bank are hardly "sitting on it"?

Hello Lady! · 05-05-2014 10:51am

OU812 wrote: »

But it shouldn't. It's a file they upload weekly/monthly. The same date should be specified on it every time & the transfer should go through wether it's a bank holiday or outside of banking hours.

well no, its not that simple. the file wouldn't change but the day you would have to upload it to the bank would. so I imagine for it to go through on Tuesday it would need to be uploaded 2 working days prior - Thursday (because mon is bh). But Thursday was a bank hol in the rest of Europe so the files were uploaded but due to the rest of Europe being on hols the files just sat there. in this case the staff should have uploaded the file on wed. but because thats not the normal procedure it didn't happen.

NickD · 05-05-2014 10:54am

This is an absolute joke. It is bad enough that the banks won't pay us the money that is waiting in our accounts, but to take out the direct debits early is just adding insult to injury. The banks will do well on two fronts, they will keep the money and receive interest and screw us in fees for unpaid direct debits/ being overdrawn.

jmaralv · 08-05-2014 5:56pm

Hey, anyone has any update on this? it's the first month we're getting the child benefit itself, I mean we got the whole bunch of previous months in April, but May it's not coming.

January · 08-05-2014 6:58pm

May's should be there by now, if it's not contact the Child Benefit section, you can ring or email them.

Child Benefit Section
Department of Social Protection
Social Welfare Services Office
St Oliver Plunkett Road
Letterkenny
Donegal
Ireland
Opening Hours:You can only contact this office by email or telephone.
Tel:(074) 916 4400
Locall:1890 400 400
Homepage: http://www.welfare.ie

stephenrmcf · 30-05-2014 12:37am

its to do with the end of the banking day....friday close goes straight to monday, thats why you will never see a transaction/direct dept ect date for saturday or sunday on your bank account.... on bank holiday mondays this day will also become a non transaction day on your account..bank holiday friday close should show the lodgment as it would on a normal monday closing day...its there late monday for tuesday, there for it should be there late friday for tuesday of a bank holiday