Redundant

[swill453]

I make frequent cash withdrawals from my ISA, and every time I do so I get a confirmation email saying:

"I can confirm that a payment of £XX.XX has been paid to your nominated account by BACS. Payment will be received in 3-5 working days unless a same day (CHAPS) payment has been requested and paid for."

It irritates me every time.

Scott.

[stewamax]

It irritates me every time.

<pedant>
What irritates you? Your receiving the message, the contents of the message or your receiving the payment?
</pedant>

It can be rewritten: ""We have paid £XX.XX by BACS to your nominated account. It will be received in 3-5 working days unless a same day (CHAPS) payment has been requested and paid for."
Slightly shorter but is it any clearer?

And the final 'paid for' is not redundant: my clearing banks routinely rip me off for CHAPS transfers at £25 (or thereabouts) a pop.

[swill453]

It can be rewritten: ""We have paid £XX.XX by BACS to your nominated account. It will be received in 3-5 working days unless a same day (CHAPS) payment has been requested and paid for."
Slightly shorter but is it any clearer?

You've missed my point. BACS and CHAPS are mutually exclusive. The first sentence tells me they've used BACS, therefore the "unless ... CHAPS ..." part of the second sentence is impossible.

Scott.

[stewamax]

No - I didn't miss the point, although I can see why you are irritated.

If I rewrite it: "We have paid £XX.XX to your nominated account. If you requested payment via BACS, or if you omitted to specify a payment type (in which case payment will be via BACS), this payment will be credited to your nominated account in 3-5 working days . If however you requested a CHAPS payment and the request was received before our CHAPS payment deadline of 15.00 and you paid the CHAPS transaction fee and this fee was successfully credited to us, your nominated account will be credited the same day", is it any clearer?

The original has many other 'imprecisions', not least of which is that if you request a CHAPS payment after the paying financial institution's deadline, it will not take place the same day.

(It raises the question of why the payer cannot use FPS instead of BACS, but that is not one for Pedant's Place)

[swill453]

If I rewrite it: "We have paid £XX.XX to your nominated account. If you requested payment via BACS...

Again, you miss the point.

They confirm (paraphrasing, my emphasis) "We have used BACS". Then they go on to say (again, paraphrasing) "However, if we didn't use BACS ...".

It's like saying "Take this apple. If it is an orange, it'll cost more."

Scott.