halifax and abbey are non clearing banks
the traditional big four are your clearing banks
barclays / rbos / natwest / hsbc - all others will clear funds through somewhere else first -
iirc alliance & leicester are the only building society with facilities like a clearing bank - as someone else said you can have funds moved the same day if you pay a fee for it - the fees are were the banks/building societies make money - not off the interest - if this were true everyone would surely be claiming back all the lost interest like they are with charges but it is simply not the case - it is a myth as under banking code regulations banks dont earn interest from your money - in fact banks clear cheques after 3 days even though it takes something like 7 days for the cheque to actually clear and so are actually clearing it earlier for you -