Current accounts: What counts as a monthly pay-in? Only salary?

blon

Hi,
Most current accounts with benefits like the Santander 1-2-3 require a minimum monthly payment into the account. What exactly counts as a pay-in? Do you need to have your salary paid into the account to meet the criterion, or could you have a standing order set up transfering the salary from another account to the account in question?

Are there difference across banks how they define pay-ins?

Thanks for clarifying this for me as I could not find any indication for example in the case of the Santande 1-2-3.

If you know from experience how the situation is for a specific bank please post here.

Best
Blon

Cycrow

any transfer into the account will count, so you can do a standing order or money transfer from another account.

however, in same cases, like the 123 account, it cant be from the same bank, i.e. you cant transfer from one Santander account to another

dreaming

I only have pension (not salary as such) which gets paid to Nationwide but is less than the £1000 required for my FlexDirect. I then make a transfer of more than £500 from here into my 123 account. The direct debits I set up on the 123 account are only £230 per month (but enough cashback to cover the £2 monthly fee) so I transfer the difference back to Nationwide to complete the £1000 monthly credit required. As long as the credits are external to the bank (in these particular cases - e.g. not from a Nationwide account to FlexDirect/from a Santander account to 123 account) they don't mind (or even know) what the money relates to. Also the credit(s) can be as many as you like over the month as long as they add up to the correct requirement.

DragonQ

Any deposit from an external source/bank.

AFAIK, the only accounts where you can do internal transfers are Lloyds/TSB/BoS Vantage/Enhance accounts.

blon

That was all very useful, thanks to all!

blon

One follow-up question: If one transferred 1000 GBP from bank A to bank B (1000 GBP would be B's minimum monthly pay-in), would the bank be suspicious or felt cheated on if a few days later the 1000 GBP were transferred back to bank A?

molerat

blon wrote: »

One follow-up question: If one transferred 1000 GBP from bank A to bank B (1000 GBP would be B's minimum monthly pay-in), would the bank be suspicious or felt cheated on if a few days later the 1000 GBP were transferred back to bank A?

Loads of people on here do exactly that. They must have figured that they can make more money from the masses so do not bother about the few that take advantage.

Archi_Bald

If they would be suspicious or felt cheated on, they would have had reason to do so for years and would probably have said something by now because these sorts of transfers have happened for years.

However, I can't think of anything they could possibly complain about.

Atidi

blon wrote: »

One follow-up question: If one transferred 1000 GBP from bank A to bank B (1000 GBP would be B's minimum monthly pay-in), would the bank be suspicious or felt cheated on if a few days later the 1000 GBP were transferred back to bank A?

Perhaps, but many people do it.

It's quite common to transfer £1000 from Bank A to Bank B to Bank C and so on, and perhaps even back to Bank A, where another account is possibly held.

The same £1000 on the monthly merry go round to satisfy the monthly credit requirement of each account.

HSBC only require £500 credit per month, or they revert your account to a "current account" ... whatever that difference is. (I think maybe 1% more on an overdraft perhaps)

Lansdowne

The bank may feel cheated, whatever that means, because the intention of the £1000 minimum is to ensure that the current account is used as the person's main account. A lot of people on these forums hold multiple accounts and move money around to fit the rules, but probably only a small proportion of the total users of these accounts.

From the bank's point of view they would probably like to restrict the £x00/month to salary (or other genuine source of income) but the bank has no way of identifying whether money paid in from another bank is genuine income or simply the account holder's own cahs circulating around.

Another annoyance caused by the culture of "free" banking in this country.

Archi_Bald

Lansdowne wrote: »

Another annoyance caused by the culture of "free" banking in this country.

What's the annoyance?