Sending house deposit to solicitor

[Relaxingweekendmaybe]

We are due to pay our house deposit next week. We have money in two accounts, one is joint and one is owned singly. The amount will be £18,000 from each account plus the fees for the solicitors and insurances shes taking out. She said we can make it in two payments, so around £18-19,000 each with the total being around £38,000. Will this go through online banking or will we need to go into both branches? Really confused as we haven’t done this before.

Phone your bank and ask.

It depends on the bank. For our recent house purchase, HSBC would only allow up to £25k in a single payment per day in online banking, but Nationwide allowed up to 100k.

You can only transfer a certain amount per day via online banking, can't remember how much it is though. I had to do several transactions over a few days.

When I did this last year, I paid a small amount from each account, via On line Banking. When the solicitor’s account’s department confirmed they had received the money, I sent the rest, some from each account. Be warned, some banks only allow smaller amounts of money to be transferred daily. It was £10k from Nationwide IIRC. I did their payments over 3 days. I also paid different amounts each time so that any missed payment was traceable.

I rang Lloyds to pay my deposit last year as online had a limit (I can't remember how much but it said on the app). They were really helpful, did all the checks to make sure I wasn't being scammed then transferred it while I was on the phone. Definitely worth ringing your bank.

When my DS paid his deposit last spring, he had to go into the building society to arrange it.

The limit for faster payments is £1,000,000, but I’m not aware of a bank that allows that for personal accounts. It varies massively bank to bank. Santander’s limit for online payments is £100,000, HSBC just £25,000 and Barclays is £50,000

find your bank here: https://www.wearepay.uk/what-we-do/payment-systems/faster-payment-system/transaction-limits/

Okay I will go into my branch and ask as it’s not far from me. My husband’s is a bit further but regardless probably better to do it there. I can see online that we are within the limits but just to be sure. The last thing I want is for the money to be put on hold as it will delay all of us.

I sent a small amount the day before and asked for confirmation it had been received from the solicitor before sending the full amount using the saved details the following day.

It meant I could be sure I had entered the proper account details and also could be sure it was the genuine solicitor’s account - there were a lot of horror stories in the press at the time about scammers sending false bank details and taking off with the deposit money.