Hi all,
I have set up a SAE envelope system to receive cheques from customers that may not be in when I clean their windows, but I am also looking into BACS being another option.
Do any of you have experience of receiving payments via this method, & if so, do you know if the are customers able to include a reference, such as the date of clean, & say the 1st part of their address?
Many thanks.
The customers are able to include a reference. However, don't try this with Santander. Unfortunately, this bank expect you to be psychic and to know who has paid even though they will not display the reference. After four years of hassling them about it, I finally put my complaint in writing. The response was that they are aware of the problem but don't know if or when they will ever fix it. Bunch of muppets really because they used to display the reference then they took it away. You still get the surname and the amount. For most small businesses this is enough to find out who has paid. Not so good when you get duplicate surnames and duplicate amounts. I've had to open a second business account elsewgere just so the BACS references get displayed. However, Santander make it quite easy for me to deposit cash and cheques. It is done via ATM and I live close by. So I am in the daft position of having to run two business accounts for the same business - one to receive BACS and the other for easy deposits of cash and cheques. As cheques are phased out towards 2018, there will be more and more BACS payments so it looks like Santander will eventually only be getting my cash deposits.
The BACS references that I get the customers to use are <door number or first three letters of house name><postcode>
Really Im with A&L santander displays the ref no problem.
It may be that the A & L business banking hasn't yet migrated onto the Santander system - or has it? I'm with Santander via being with Abbey National (later Abbey) for 30 years.
In my complaint letter, I suggested to them that when I pay my Santander credit card by BACS, that I just provide "P Coleman" as the payment reference rather than my 16 digit card number. I notice that they made no mention of this point in their reply. But that is exactly what they expect their small business customers to put up with. As cheques are phased out, I foresee a time not so many years away when I could be receiving 200+ BACS payments per month. At the moment, I only receive a few so it's possible to keep track by account holder's name and the amount owed. I have a number of duplicate names and amounts on my books but not many pay by BACS so I get away with it at the moment. This will change as the number of BACS payers escalates.
I just couldn't believe that they were treating this issue as low priority (my words - not theirs).
I even wrote to the top dog's email address in this country in the hope that if the top people were aware of such a glaring ommission something would be resolved.
Bear in mind that they used to supply this info and took it away so it's not as if they can't supply it.