Small business accounting

What are BACS and CHAPS payments?

Last updated
July 29, 2025

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What are BACS and CHAPS payments?

CHAPS-an abbreviation for Clearing House Automated Payment System-is a same-day bank-to-bank payment system. It is typically used for large, one-time payments, as the transfers are relatively expensive to process. There are no upper or lower limits to the amount that can be transferred.

BACS, or Bankers' Automated Clearing Services enables payments to be made electronically from one bank to another. The transfer method handles all debit and credit card transactions, has an upper limit of £250,000 per transfer and is mainly used for low-value transactions. BACS payments take three working days to clear.

<p>CHAPS-an abbreviation for Clearing House Automated Payment System-is a same-day bank-to-bank payment system. It is typically used for large, one-time payments, as the transfers are relatively expensive to process. There are no upper or lower limits to the amount that can be transferred. </p><p><br></p><p>BACS, or Bankers' Automated Clearing Services enables payments to be made electronically from one bank to another. The transfer method handles all debit and credit card transactions, has an upper limit of £250,000 per transfer and is mainly used for low-value transactions. BACS payments take three working days to clear. </p><p><br></p>

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