Best account to use for direct debits

gonzo99

Hi,

Have been reading the forum for a while and there seem to be some very knowledgeable folks on here, so thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions for me. [/flatter mode off]

I'm self employed, and therefore cashflow in can be erratic, leading to problems with regular direct debits, etc.

For the last year or so I have tried to run both business and personal from a Lloyds TSB business account, but have had enough of them for various reasons (another story). Part of the problem has been where cheques paid in have missed scheduled payments out by a day or two, and they are not prepared to give me even a small overdraft to cover this. (though they are prepared to take £55 on the same day and bounce a dd for 10.28 against uncleared funds of over £100 :mad:)

As I am starting a new line of business, I have opened a new account with Barclays under that trading name(so far been impressed with their service, deals etc) and intend to move my current Lloyds business account to them as well.

It also seems a good time to separate business and personal accounts though, so my current plan is this.

Use Barclays to pay in all income (two separate accounts under different trading names).

Run a personal account elsewhere, from which all my personal direct debits (mortgage, etc) can be paid from, and transfer money into that to cover the outgoings.

My experience with Lloyds suggests it would be best to run this account elsewhere, so that if occasional payments are bounced, etc, it won't affect my rating within Barclays should I need borrowing from them in the future.

The problem though is that if I pay a cheque into Barclays, then wait for it to clear before I can transfer it into the personal account, THEN have to wait for it to clear before the payment is due, that is likely to take the best part of two weeks.

A browse of the bank's sites suggests that they all seem to have differing views on whether they will pay direct debits from 'uncleared funds'. Is anyone aware of a bank that has a flexible approach to this? If so then at the same time as I pay a cheque into Barclays, I can write a cheque from that account to my personal account, and minimise the time delay to 1 or 2 days at most. (Barclays apparently will generally allow payments against uncleared funds up to £1000)

Obviously the ideal would be to have a personal account with an overdraft to cover this, but although I don't have an especially bad credit history it appears to be bad enough to prevent some banks at least giving me an overdraft.

At the moment my current front runner seems to be the A&L premier direct account, as I will certainly be paying in more than £500 a month, albeit only to go straight out again. Does anyone know how flexible they are about overdrafts to those will less than perfect credit records?

Any other (constructive ) suggestions would also be welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Gavin