Re: Is this a rip-off?
Funnily enough a BBC programme "Watchdog" had a consumer slot about this only recently. The bank concerned was taking cash payments in branch off of credit card payments, but not lodging them to the CC sometimes up to 5 working days afterwards. That meant that for some customers who lodged the money quite close to the monthly limit got charged extra interest and penalties for not making the minimum payments.
Basically, it's a case of the bank holding onto your money, if only for a day, to make the most amount of profit interest on your account. The bank that was highlighted in that report did back down and say that cash payments would be credited within the day.
There seems to be a big drive in general to decrease the amount of time it takes for money to clear in bank accounts in the UK at the moment. I watched with amazement recently as somebody made a credit transfer between 2 banks in a scandinavian country within 45 minutes!!!!
So yes, it is a rip off, but I'm not sure what exactly you could do about it