Selftrade - Can you make an initial lump sum deposit?

Malory

I recently opened up a share dealing account with Selftrade (I was born in the US, so I have limited choices as some online UK brokers will not take Americans because of tax issues). When I filled out my application, I asked to have a £100 one time deposit put into my account.

I am sure that I did it because I am using a bank account that I rarely use to fund the account, and I had to move money into the account so I would have £100 in it.

I am sure that when I filled out the online application, you could set up a direct debit or make a one-time payment.

My bank account has been approved, and my bank account online shows that I have set up a direct debit with Selftrade, but the amount is not available.

I called Selftrade to find out when the £100 would be taken, and was told that you cannot apply to have a one-off payment taken.

The customer service checked my account, and thankfully, they have not set up any direct debit for me. (I was worried that they might have set up a direct debit for £100 each month.)

Once again, I am sure that I requested the one-off payment on the online application.

I looked at the PDF (printout and post) version of the application, and it does not allow you to do a one-off payment.

However, on the "apply for an account" page on the Selftrade website, it says "Complete your online application and once approved use your debit card to fund your account, up to £10,500 for your initial deposit, and you can make your investment purchases straight away".

I know that since my bank account has been approved, I can log into my Selftrade account and move money in whenever I want.

But I would like to know if they are going to take £100 from me or not. I have enough money in other bank accounts to avoid being overdrawn (I wouldn't be involved in share dealing if I didn't), but I don't want to put in more more money than I'd planned, either.

Edit: I've sent a message to Selftrade via my online account; maybe the phone person doesn't know that online accounts work differently?

anselld

You can pay in using debit card or you can request transfer in/out via BACS.
Debit card pay-in allows funds to be used instantly.
BACS takes 3 working days.

As far as I know there is no facility for a regular DD.

Malory

That wasn't my question.

I know that I can use my debit card to pay in whenever I want to.

I was not asking how I can fund my account.

I want to know if they will be taking £100 from me or not, as I already asked for it to be taken out.

I want to know why I was able to say on my application that I wanted to move £100 in initially, and then not have the £100 moved in and be told that I can't make a lump sum payment with my application. In other words, why the application says one thing and the customer service person said another.

The website also says you can pay in a lump sum when applying online.

Did they change the rules, without updating their website, in between the time I submitted my application and the time they checked my bank account?

I don't want to have to plan for the fact that at some random time in the future £100 may disppear from my bank account to be moved to Selftrade. I authorized this payment, so are they taking it our not?

If they aren't, that's fine, I'll just move money in with my debit card or do a transfer, but I'd like to know.

I know it is not a huge sum of money, but I like to be able to account for all my money.

As an aside, I am pretty sure you can set up a direct deposit because the application asked me if I wanted to do that and the person I spoke to said I could do that. In fact, we had a misunderstanding at first and he thought I was referring to a direct deposit that I had set up.

However, not having tried to set one up, I can't speak from experience.