Transferring money between accounts

smiffy11

Hi all,

Quick question about the minimum pay-ins required by some current accounts:
I've just opened a Nationwide FlexDirect account and a Santander 123 Current Account to take advantage of the 5% interest with Nationwide (up to £2,500) and the 3% interest with Santander (up to £20,000). Santander requires two direct debits, which is fine, and both require a minimum monthly pay-in of £1,000 and £500 for Nationwide and Santander respectively.

I know that it's possible to just transfer £1,000 from one of the accounts and back again to satisfy both requirements, which I intend to do. My question is, can I transfer the money one way and send it back the same day, or do the two transactions have to be on different days? Or another way to put it, does an account have to be £1000 more at the end of a day than it was the previous day, or is it fine for the end balance at each day to be the same and the money just go out and straight back in the same day?
Does anyone do this themselves and could tell me what they do?

Thanks in advance!
Smiffy

YorkshireBoy

Long question, requiring a very short answer...

smiffy11 wrote: »

can I transfer the money one way and send it back the same day

Yes.

grumbler

smiffy11 wrote: »

..,does an account have to be £1000 more at the end of a day than it was the previous day, or is it fine for the end balance at each day to be the same and the money just go out and straight back in the same day?

No and Yes.
If it is, say, a salary, can a bank require it to remain in the account until the next day?

That said, when abusing offers it's wise to do this in a less blatant way than returning the same amount to the same account on the same day.

smiffy11

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Long question, requiring a very short answer...Yes.

Can't get a much shorter answer than that, thanks!

grumbler wrote: »

No and Yes.
If it is, say, a salary, can a bank require it to remain in the account until the next day?

That said, when abusing offers it's wise to do this in a less blatant way than returning the same amount to the same account on the same day.

Good point!
What would suggest as an alternative to sending the same money back and forth so it's less obvious?

grumbler

smiffy11 wrote: »

What would suggest as an alternative to sending the same money back and forth so it's less obvious?

If you have more than two accounts the suggestion is obvious.
For two accounts I would at least vary slightly the dates, amounts and number of transfers.

colsten

smiffy11 wrote: »

Good point!
What would suggest as an alternative to sending the same money back and forth so it's less obvious?

I have been swapping the same monthly amounts on the same scheduled date between 9 accounts by SO for years and never had any problems. All the banks have known for a long time that some people will use some current accounts for savings only.