Setting up standing orders to cycle money between current accounts

ToTo_Man · 7 October 2016 at 12:37PM

With fixed-term savings rates so paltry, we have opened more current accounts and linked regular savers to try and max out our interest. The accounts require different minimum pay-ins each month. I've always just done this manually, but now that we have so many accounts to deal with it would be easier if I could set up regular payments (standing orders?) to automate things. However I am concerned about the following scenario happening:

Say I set-up a payment from account A to account B to be made on the Nth of each month, and then send the money onto account C the day after, and one or more of these scheduled payments takes place on the weekend, will it still register as a pay-in and meet the criteria for interest to be paid for that month? In a world of 24/7 banking common sense says it should, but I'm not an expert on banking systems.

What is the safest minimum advisable duration for it to be counted as a pay-in for that month?

Dobbibill · 7 October 2016 at 12:58PM

SOs will not go on a weekend with a lot of banks so you may find they land up being done on the same working day after the weekend.

Would the balance in Account B be enough for the outbound SO to Account C etc or would it cause problems for you if the SO from Account A hasn't arrived yet?

agrinnall · 7 October 2016 at 1:02PM

Rather than reinvent the wheel, read through the 40 posts on this recent thread which will probably contain the answers to any questions you have along with several you may not have thought of.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5532093

bobobski · 8 October 2016 at 7:48AM

Basic answer: do them all on the same day. I think for 2016 you shouldn't do them any later in the month than 28th, to avoid weekends/bank holidays/February (a bit late now though).

badger09 · 8 October 2016 at 2:48PM

bobobski wrote: »

Basic answer: do them all on the same day. I think for 2016 you shouldn't do them any later in the month than 28th, to avoid weekends/bank holidays/February (a bit late now though).

That's very risky, unless all of the accounts have a large enough balance to cover the outgoing SO, regardless of the arrival of the incoming SO.

bobobski · 9 October 2016 at 7:19AM

badger09 wrote: »

That's very risky, unless all of the accounts have a large enough balance to cover the outgoing SO, regardless of the arrival of the incoming SO.

The alternative is logging into your accounts for several days in a row to check the SO has worked, which presumably you're aiming not to do. May as well make the transfers by faster payments in that case.

I've been doing mine on the same day for a year and had no problems. Better than hitting a weekend/bank holiday/end of the month. Easier if you don't get paid on 28th like me, of course.

polymaff · 9 October 2016 at 12:12PM

....... which is why some of us do the monthly routine manually!

An hour a month versus all the stress described above.

badger09 · 9 October 2016 at 12:44PM

polymaff wrote: »

....... which is why some of us do the monthly routine manually!

An hour a month versus all the stress described above.

Or, like me, a 'pick & mix' version of the monthly shuffle.
Automated SOs for some, manual for others.

Gives me the illusion that I'm in control of my financial destiny;)

MABLE · 9 October 2016 at 4:07PM

Just keep it simple. I do a round robin once a month manually and all works out well.

badger09 · 9 October 2016 at 5:09PM

MABLE wrote: »

Just keep it simple. I do a round robin once a month manually and all works out well.

Not so simple when you're out of UK for several weeks spanning Christmas and New Year, with either limited internet access, or access which may not be as secure as you would have at home;).

Which is why I modified my 100% manual approach a couple of years ago.

Setting up standing orders to cycle money between current accounts

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free