Bacs Processing Over The Christmas Period

[anaxcrosswords]

On Monday (early afternoon) I had a BACS remittance advice sent by email. I would expect this to usually process in 2 days, although it hadn't cleared by this morning.
Is BACS fully automated, or can I expect there to be some delay over the Christmas holidays?

[RocW]

As far as I can see, some of the services work normally, seven days a week. I have just sent an EFT which worked fine. If the transfer is between branches of the same bank, it should take place immediately. If it is between banks, the new "Faster" service should take place within hours. CHAPS can still take up to three WORKING days though.

[boxtops]

I made a payment on-line on the 23rd and it only showed in my account of the receiving organisation yesterday. My understanding is that there shouldn't be delays - as you say, it's automated.

[boxtops]

^ mine was a Faster payment.

[venator]

Is there a limit on the amount of a faster payment?

Anything up to about £500 seems to go as an EFT, and my bank doesn't tell me which payment type it will be until I've made it.

[anaxcrosswords]

Thanks for the responses all. All of my clients pay by BACS but the one in question is the only one which sends an email - the others send remittances by post so I don't really know how quickly their payments process. BACS payments from the client referred to here always hit the account 2 days (very, very occasionally 3) after their email.

[Skyline D]

Remittances should generally clear immediately but unless it's internal to the same bank they don't in my experience actually go on non-working days. If I instruct payments to a supplier on a Sunday they don't leave my bank until the Monday. If I instruct payments after 5pm on a weekday they don't normally appear on my bank statement until the next day. I'd guess if your customer enacted the transaction as "immediate" and didn't delay it deliberately then whether or not it transferred immediately would depend on whether the banks involved closed early on Xmas Eve for automated processing. I've no idea if mine did or not. I didn't try to pay anything on Christmas Eve.