drcharris

Just moved to New York and would like to find a bank account in the US that allows me to do the equivalent of the painless BACS system I've been enjoying with my UK banking for the last 10+ years.

Basically, I want to be able to take someone's account number and routing number (sort-code equivalent here), and put some money into their account via online banking. It's fine if it takes a few days - I don't need instant wire transfer with hefty fees. This is for US to US transfers - not international, no FX involved.

I've seen some stuff from e.g. ING Direct that gets close, but it still requires the other party to respond to a mail, type in their details etc. I'd like a seamless money transfer service with no other steps required. Looks like ACH is the *mechanism* but no-one seems to offer this ability.

All the facilities I've seen for easy transfers are to accounts owned by the same person but in other institutions.

Am I missing something obvious? Is this as rare as I think it is? Does anyone have an account that does this now?

rpjs

Chase offers this service, but a lot of times if it's to an out of state or smaller bank what happens is your bank msils a check drawn on your account to the recipient (seriously!). Having said that, from your point of view the setup is similar to setting up an SO/DD in the UK. If it's to another Chase customer or a customer of one of tge other big banks like BoA, Citi or Wells Fargo then it is truly electronic I believe.

drcharris

Thanks, I will check Chase out. My particular need is to pay my rent direct to my landlord, which is into a BofA account.

I'm aware of the online "Bill Pay" features most banks offer, and my current bank does that - and yes I understand it's actually a good service because they will mail checks out for you where electronic means don't exist. But this is for a straight person-to-person transfer and I don't want the other guy to have to jump through hoops to get his money - hence the "BACS-equivalent" request.

md95065

While I wouldn't recommend Bank of America to anyone they do have quite a reasonable online banking system and it is extremely easy to make instantaneous (and free) transfers to another Bank of America account (not just other accounts that you own - any account). Transfers to accounts held at other banks take longer and have some fees associated with them.

sir_eccles

HSBC does bank to bank transfers. Though you have to do some test deposits of like 30c to activate it.

Bob

All you need is the bank account number and routing number to put money into someones account, so any online banking service should be able to do it.

Some will be easier than others and/or cheap/free.

drcharris

So I actually have an HSBC Premier account, which is great for moving money to and from the UK.

Their "bank-to-bank" facility is only for accounts that you own with other institutions, not third parties. I asked Customer Services about it, and got this response:

"The option to set up an Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment to a
third's parties account is unavailable."

Guess I'm looking to open another account then :-)

Sheepdip

Plus the fact that they're about to charge $5 a month for the previlege of having a debit card!! Time to change.....

I think that any bank that has the 'Bill Pay' service will do this. Looking at TD Bank at the moment who are also in NY.

sir_eccles

Doh, you're right. I only use it to transfer to my own accounts at other banks.

GeoffM

They'll get your money one way or another - but this is taking the urine somewhat!

Bob

They're phasing it in over a period of time from the new year. A few other banks are doing the same.

It's the boo hoo story of them not being able to charge as much of a service charge percentage to the merchant for you using a debit card, so they're getting it directly from you...cheeky sods.

GeoffM

Over here (ok, it's not the US) the merchants are complaining that's it's costing even more of a bomb to allow use of debit cards (and more so, credit cards, and even more so AMEX)! I don't mind fair charges (20p), eg for using non-bank ATMs, but not, for example taking it to the extreme, Ryanair charging £8 per person per sector per ticket per fart per phase of the moon and any day ending in a Y to use anything but their own credit card.

penguinsix

I have a Citibank Private Bank account that allows free wire transfers, which is somewhat similar. The only problem is for some people their bank charges a fee for receiving a wire.

Duncan Roberts

Easiest way is to find a bank that does free wire transfers. If you look at your local offerings you should find one that does that service. Welcome to the US banking system.

Antmakka

I've just done this from Nationwide to my Credit Union. The process is called SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications). I just went on my banks website and followed the links, filled out the form and it takes a few business days (at least it would have if I'd given them my Credit Union account number ) They charged me £25. Simples