Ways to pay

Confirmation of Payee

Confirmation of payee is an 'account name checking service' to help make sure that new payments, such as one-off payments, bills and standing orders, are sent to the right person or business.

It could also help to avoid certain types of scams, like 'Authorised Push Payment' scams, which happen when you are tricked into authorising a payment to an account that you believe belongs to a legitimate payee, but is in fact controlled by a scammer.

It will do this by:

• matching a payee's name to the one on their account
• letting you check the name before sending a payment
• explains the risk of making a payment when the name doesn't match.

Other banks and financial institutions have recently introduced this feature. We are currently reviewing how best to introduce this for our customers, and will keep you informed as to when the Confirmation of Payee service will be available to you.

Sending a Payment

For now there is no change to the way you will set up new payees, or make payments to existing payees either online, over the telephone or in branch. You should still ensure that you are confident that the person you are sending money to is who they say they are.

Receiving a Payment

You will still be able to receive payments into your account(s) as you do now, however as other banks and building societies launch this service their customers may be asked to confirm your account name, which is how it appears on your bank statement, as well as your sort code and account number before they set up a new payment.

Until we go live with Confirmation of Payee, anyone setting up a new payment to your Co-operative Bank account from a bank that has this service active will receive a message 'Confirmation of Payee Unavailable', 'Unable to Check', 'Account not Registered' or similar. This is the message that we would expect to be received until we go live, however the payment can still be sent and received into your Co-operative Bank account.

Faster Payments

You can use the Faster Payments Service to make either immediate or future-dated transfers and bill payments, as well as standing orders.

Standing order and future-dated payments will only be processed on normal business working days.

Your payment should normally reach the beneficiary’s account immediately.

Ways to make a Faster Payment

• Business Online Banking - A convenient way to make a faster payment
• Telephone - Make a faster payment by calling our award winning Business Customer Services.

For more information on the benefits of Faster Payments please visit:
Faster Payments website

• There may be an instance where a Faster Payment won't be received by the beneficiary until the next working day or the payment may be rejected by the receiving bank. Therefore, if your payment is time-critical or is typically high value, we would recommend using CHAPS (for which an ancillary change would be levied).

CHAPS

CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) is a method of making same-day electronic sterling transfers, for critical and large amounts, to clearing banks in the United Kingdom.

If you have the CHAPS option within your Business Online Banking package then you can send payments online up to 5:30pm. For some customers these will need to be approved by a signatory, so will require a minimum of 2 users.

For all other customers your requests received before 4:30pm will be processed the same day – after 4:30pm, it will be processed the next business day.

Once a CHAPS payment has been sent, it cannot be returned.

Please refer to your Business Current Account tariff for CHAPS Charges

To arrange to send a CHAPS payment:

• Login to Business Online Banking or FD Online
• Fax in a request to 0161 839 2163
  
• Email a scanned request to chapsrequests@co-operativebank.co.uk.

All requests need to be signed in accordance with your account mandate and on Business letter-headed paper.

For help with making payments online take a look at our FAQs

Debit card

Whether you need to pay for travel, hospitality or something for the office, there’s nothing more convenient than a debit card as the money comes directly out of your account, meaning you stay in complete control of your finances.

Here are some of the other ways our business debit card could benefit your business:

• Flexibility to pay for goods and services anywhere in the world, without the hassle of writing cheques or withdrawing cash*
• Freedom to issue up to 20 debit cards to whichever employees you want
• Peace of mind that you can withdraw cash from a network LINK cash machines in the UK (a small fee may apply to some ATMs)
• Worldwide access to your money, by withdrawing cash from any cash machine displaying the Plus symbol*
• Enhanced security through Chip and PIN technology

*2.75% non sterling transaction fee on purchases in foreign currency. There may also be a 2% (Min £2) handling charge on foreign currency cash advances

Apply for a debit card

Cheques and Cash

You can use our network of branches for any cash and cheque deposits. Simply take your paying in book and the cash or cheques you want to pay in to your nearest branch.

You can also send cheques in the post to:

The Co-operative Bank p.l.c

PO Box 12672

Sandringham House

Sandrington Avenue

Harlow

Essex

CM20 9QR

Never send cash through the post.

Alternatively, you may find it more convenient to deposit cheques and cash over the counter at any one of more than 11,000 Post Offices® using our Post Office® paying-in scheme.

Cash can be deposited at any Post Office® by debit card or cash deposit slip up to a maximum of £10,000 per week (of which a maximum of £250 per day can be coins) without prior arrangement.

Please be advised that some Post Office® branches can only accept cash deposits of up to £2,000 per day.

If you are likely to deposit over £10,000 cash per week and/or require a Change Giving facility you will need to call Business Customer Services to register with the address of your preferred Post Office® branch. Please allow up to three weeks for the arrangements to be made. There may be a nominal charge for this service. Please refer to your tariff.

You will need a paying in book and Post Office® envelopes for any cheques that you want to pay in at the Post Office®. Contact one of our customer advocates to order these items.

For more information on how to utilise Post Office® services, please read the Post Office® Guide.

At The Co-operative Bank, we offer a swift and efficient bulk cash processing service. If you wish to use this service, please contact your Relationship Manager.

We also provide prepaid envelopes so that you can send your cheques directly to our central processing centre. Just make sure you include a paying in slip with your cheques. Contact one of our customer advocates to order these items.