Trying to understand DDs and Standing Orders

grumbler

I think in the past the main (only?) advantage was that DDs were processed almost instantly while BACS transfers took 3 days.

innovate

agrinnall wrote: »

I can't see what advantage it offers over a SO to push the money from the originating account.

I can, and a whole lot of other MSEers do too --- but if an SO does what you need to do, a DD would of course not be an advantage to you :cool:

YorkshireBoy

grumbler wrote: »

I think in the past the main (only?) advantage was that DDs were processed almost instantly while BACS transfers took 3 days.

There was generally only a small* gain though, since funds to meet the DD pull had to be in the account the working day before...therefore only saving one day (because you'd have initiated the BACS transfer the day before).

Remember pre-FPs?...when it could take 5-6 days to get your money from one savings account to another via your current account!


* Unless you were using Santander, YBS, Halifax et al who took 4 days to carry out a BACS transfer!

Hooloovoo

innovate wrote: »

Yes, fair enough, I can't set up the DD physically myself. I should have said that, where offered, I can instruct and authorise the bank/BS with whom I hold my savings account to pull a given amount of money at given intervals from my current account into my savings account. And that this instruction is known as a Direct Debit.

This wording is probably not correct either for the purist - - but the good news is, we can all use DDs to automatically and regularly move money from our current accounts into [some] of our own savings accounts.

I think it's just being pedantic to question the way you wrote something. I mean if you want to get technical about it, a customer can't set up a standing order themselves either. You give an instruction to the bank to create the standing order.

As a customer, you pretty much can't do anything at all - other than give your instructions.