PoohBah

Your payment goes initially to Zopa's collection account at RBS.  If it went through the Faster Payments system, this normally happens within seconds, although the sending bank may defer payment to allow security checks to be carried out:  this is most likely if the sum being transferred is large, or it is the first time you have sent money to Zopa this way.

Early on the next working day, RBS sends Zopa a list detailing all the payments received on the previous working day, and this is usually processed by late morning.  Until Zopa receive that list, they do not know who has paid what, and therefore cannot credit the payment to your own account within Zopa.  Payments received by RBS after the cut-off time (normally 18h30) or on a non-working day - weekends and bank holidays - are treated as having been made on the next working day.

Examples: a payment sent on Tuesday at 13h15 would normally appear on your account on Wednesday morning; a payment sent on Tuesday at 19h00 would appear on Thursday; a payment sent on Friday at 16h00 would appear on Monday; a payment sent on Friday at 21h00 (or at any time on Saturday or Sunday) would appear on Tuesday.  Bank holidays will cause a further delay.

Payments sent via BACS (because the sum is too large for Faster Payments, or you have exceeded your bank's daily FP limit, or there is a technical issue) take three working days to reach the collection account, where day 1 is the working day where the payment is treated as having been made, and day 3 is the working day where the collection account is credited; your Zopa account is then credited on the fourth working day.

I'm sure we all know "While Shepherds Washed Their Socks", but who else knows some good parodies?

Two that come to mind are:

"We four lads from Liverpool are,
John in a taxi, George in a car,
Paul on a scooter
Tooting his hooter
Following Ringo Starr."

and (showing my age even more)

"Good King Wenceslas went out
In his Austin Seven,
Bumped into a trolleybus,
Now he's up in Heaven."

I'm sure there must be many more out there.

Link to YouTube - Elizabethan Serenade accompanies a slideshow of beautiful paintings by the Russian artist Vladimir Volegov.

Today I came across a free credit check service called Noddle (www.noddle.co.uk).  It's operated by CallCredit, and Which? gave it a positive review.  All you have to do is register; they do ask for details of a credit card so that they can perform an identity check.

Having registered, and activated the service with a PIN which was sent to my nominated email address, I was able to look at the slightly surprising amount of detail they hold.  Luckily, all was correct and appears to be fully up-to-date.  I can check as often as I like.

When registering, be sure to un-tick the two boxes which might cause unwanted second- and third-party emails (unless, of course you actually want them!)

I cast an eye over the T&C and saw nothing to alarm me.

Better than joining Experian's free 30-day trial and having to remember to cancel, or paying £2 for a one-time report.

Usual disclaimers.