I am a payee receiving standing orders, but want to change bank accounts

educateforlife

I volunteer for a small charity and we want to close our existing account with HSBC for a more ethical option with the Co-op.

The trouble is we receive multiple standing orders from donors into the HSBC account.

Is it possible to change these payments so that they're paid into our new account by instructing either/both bank(s)? We don't want to change the amount/date or who the money is going to, just would prefer to bring the charity's banking practices in line with our ethical principles and consolidate into a single account.

Any advice on how to go about doing this without having to contact all our donors (some of whom we don't have details for) and request they change their instruction would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Ash

coldhandoff

You would have to contact your donors as you would have to set up new standing order instructions and you would need their signatures etc.

PlutoinCapricorn

I did some work for a charity that did this three times, and got into a bit of a mess.

They just notified both banks on one occasion, although they did inform some of the donors what they were doing. HSBC will have the full details, so in this case they might be persuaded to contact the donors themselves.

It may help to wind down slowly: new SO donors go straight into the new account; upgradees for whom you have up to date contact details could be sent new mandates; some people just drop out, often after December.

This charity was left with a bank account with just 4 SOs coming in: only one was contactable and he gave an ultimatum. He said that if he could stay with the same bank he would increase the amount otherwise he would cancel! So the account still exists just for his benefit.

InsideInsurance

Standing orders are controlled by the payer (unlike direct debits that are controlled by the payee) and so you will need to get them to update their SOs to reflect your new account details.

It will be worth parallel running the two accounts until you have a couple of months of clear accounts with the old bank (assuming they are monthly SOs, if they are less frequent then longer parallel running)

PlutoinCapricorn

In the case I mentioned, bank 1 when consulted assured the charity that they would 're-route' all SOs to bank 2, the new bank, themselves. They would inform the donors, but there was no need for everyone to sign new mandates. Perhaps it depends on the bank...

InsideInsurance

Bank switching service is predominately done by BACS Payment Schemes Ltd. Certainly their site says they can only deal with outbound payments and simply give you a letter to send to any creditors that pay money in.

Generally with standing orders mandates arent involved as you simply log in, telephone your bank or go in branch who these days more often use chip & pin to identify you rather than signatures.