Bank Giro Credit -what is it ??

A question about : Bank Giro Credit -what is it ??

What is Bank Giro Credit ??

I think it's another way of paying bills, but I have never used or understood as I think banks can charge for it & it's not as widely used as other payment methods.

peter999

Best answers:

• I assume you mean the Bank Giro Credit that you see in the back of cheque books and the paying in books??
  It is a slip which has your account number and sort code printed. It saves the payee time of filling in the a/c number and sort code when banking in cash/cheque. So you can give this BGC to someone who is going to pay the money for you at the bank.
  I never heard of banks charging for BGCs! It is not a payment by itself, as it itself contains no value!
• Hi
  They dont charge until you actually use it to make a payment at a branch counter.
  There are few different senarios, if you bank with the bank you are making the payment in and the bank giro credit is going to one or their own accounts or another bank they dont usually charge you. If you are in a branch of the bank that is the receiving bank, they also sometimes dont charge (and I dont think they should, HSBC were taking a fiver a time off of me to pay my capital one account when the account it was going to was an HSBC collections account, but I note on the back of my ge money card statement it says if you pay in LloydsTSB there is no charge). And finally if you go to a different bank from the one the credit is being made to, which you dont bank with they will charge.
  I hope that makes sense.
  James
• Bank Giro Credit was the manual system that preceded BACS, the current electronic transfer system.
  Typically, your employer would go to the bank with a big fat cheque and dozens (or hundreds) of BGC slips and the bank would take the cheque and send each of the recipient's bank accounts the funds on the slips.
  The other main use was when your utility company printed (as they still do) a BGC slip at the foot of your bill and you could go to your bank (or to the utility's bank) and pay the funds over the counter for forwarding to the company.
  The actual slips are pretty well unchanged but are mainly now seen as paying-in slips, as Taless mentioned.
  I must admit I don't recall being charged when using them on a personal account as long as I was using my own branch (or the utility co's bankers).
• OK I read the earlier posts, but I still don't understand what bank giro credit is or why I would even need to use it.
  I'll start at the beginning.
  I was with Halifax. I switched to Ulster Bank, part of RBS Group, since they were offering £150 if you switch your account over.
  This morning I received a cheque book and a credit book. I know what cheques are and how to use them. I do not understand this credit book. It is full of 'bank giro credits'.
  I don't understand. What are they, and what are they for?
  How do you use them?
  When would you need to use them?
  What is the point of them when we have cheques, debit card payments, and direct debits?
  Is there any advantage to using them?
  Please help!
• Additionally, when I was with Halifax, if I wanted to lodge money in my account, I simply handed the cashier my visa debit account card for my account, and the cash. They gave me a receipt. There was no need for bank giro credit slips!
• As they're pre-filled (with your account details) ... they are purely for paying cash / cheques into your account. And are much (because of pre-printing) safer than you completing a paying in slip manually.
  Had you still been with Halifax you would just have used your Debit Card for paying in. The cashier swipes the card - it brings up your account - and your credits are paid in safely without the risk of them going into the wrong account.
  The pre-filled payment slips are the next best thing to paying in with a Debit Card. The very worst are blank paying in slips that you complete manually - bad figures etc can lead to some credits going to the wrong account.
  So - what you have is a book of paying in slips simply targetting your current account.. 'Bank Giro' is just an internal method of routing credits between the Banks. Other methods are 'National Giro' for GiroBank / BACS / CHAPS etc.
• This document explains the operation of your Ulster Bank account...
  https://www.ulsterbank.co.uk/content/...l_Accounts.pdf
  There's no mention of paying in using your card, but page 6 explains the BGC slip procedure.
• What is the "fee box" on the bank giro credit slips used for? And who might fill it in? Everything else on the slips seems to be explained very well here, good job everyone!
• With Ulter bank being part of RBS I would think that you can pay in using your debit card in branch as you can in most of the RBS Group