Question for multiple current account holders

enthusiasticsaver

I have just embarked on opening a few extra current accounts to take advantage of the better interest rates and working out the best way of funding these to fulfil the criteria. Do most of you who have multiple current accounts do manual transfers or standing orders. If you do standing orders how long does it take to show in the next account and when do you either move it on to another account or back to the original account?




My plan is the following:


We have 2 Santander 123 accounts which have our salaries paid into and all direct debits, most of which earn cashback to cover the fees. These both have £20k plus the amounts to cover the direct debits which go out over the month.


I have £2500 in a Nationwide FD account earning 5% and I will be putting £1000 per month into this from my Santander 123 account and from this £1000 I will be putting £500 into my NW regular saver cash isa on the day of it hitting the account manually and then transferring £500 on to my newly opened TSB classic account which at the moment has nothing in it. My aim over the next month or so is to fill this up to £2000 then open the TSB regular saver as well. At the moment the only automated standing order I have set up is the £1000 from my Santander 123 account to Nationwide Flex Direct. Should I also do a standing order from Nationwide to TSB for £500 or do the transfer manually. Which is quicker and I will I lose interest if it is in transit? I know with Tesco internet saver accounts it seems to take ages to do savings transfers.

MarkFromCornwall

Personally I do it manually on a working day during working hours. That guarantees that the transfers are almost immediate and simultaneous. You could automate it with standing orders but if you do then make sure that your system isn't affected by slight differences in how banks deal with standing orders when the date is a weekend or a bank holiday.

colsten

I use SOs for almost all the transfers, and have a 'hub and spoke' approach. My hub is a Santander 123, and the spokes are all the other accounts you can think of that need monthly deposits. I use the same approach for all accounts, i.e. even the ones that don't need external funding.

The SOs work both ways on the same day, and execute sometime overnight. All my accounts have got balances large enough to cater for the SOs, and all transfers have always been executing on the same day for the last few years.(I won't bore you with some exceptions for Tesco as they don't need monthly deposits any longer).

The one exception to the above are my Halifax Reward accounts. As I don't keep any money in them, I do the monthly transfers manually. This usually takes only a couple of minutes to complete since Faster Payments arrive literally instantly.

YorkshireBoy

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Do most of you who have multiple current accounts do manual transfers or standing orders.

Mixture of both.

If you do standing orders how long does it take to show in the next account

Milliseconds I assume. I wouldn't know exactly as when I go to bed it hasn't been sent, and when I get up it's there!

and when do you either move it on to another account or back to the original account?

Back to the source account.

...newly opened TSB classic account which at the moment has nothing in it. My aim over the next month or so is to fill this up to £2000

I'm puzzled as to why you don't immediately move £2K from Santander to TSB? Why wait "a month or so"? Surely 5% AER is better than 3% AER!?

then open the TSB regular saver as well.

Smart move.

Which is quicker and I will I lose interest if it is in transit?

The only time you may lose interest 'somewhere' is if there's a Tesco current account involved and the SO falls on a weekend (as they send SOs 7 days a week, which is unique?).

I know with Tesco internet saver accounts it seems to take ages to do savings transfers.

Not in my experience. Maybe 10-20 minutes here.


My own system is as follows:

Salary into Halifax Reward 1
Manually shift £1K round my other 3 Reward accounts on payday
3 x BoS Vantage are internally funded by SO. Likewise TSB Plus and 2 x Tesco*
FlexDirect, Club Lloyds, and YB CAD are served by cross-firing SOs from a Santander hub.


* I'm aware I no longer have to do this.

tizerbelle

I don't have the total funds (yet) to completely trust SOs for the monthly funding so I take a 2-pronged approach.

1. The monies for the 2 DDs that many accounts need are supplied by SO from my main bill account on the 1st of the month.
2. The monthly funding amount is done manually about the 8th of the month in a set route (so I don't fund accounts within the same banking group from each other - e.g. I wouldn't fund BOS from Halifax or vice versa) - I just sit down with a brew and work my way through the list until the money ends up back in the first account.

planteria

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Do most of you who have multiple current accounts do manual transfers or standing orders

i do it manually. have done it this morning (sunday) as it happens, cycling 14 current accounts.. with an input from a Savings Account where some of the DDs head to:)

Kendall80

Same as Colsten here. All mine and MrsK's accounts are serviced with automatic 'middle of month' SOs. Santander is our main account ie wages etc but we have 5 TSB current accounts with 4 being 5% Classic plus. We tend to service all other accounts (Lloyds, Nationwide etc.) with auto-SO's from these TSB acounts which also feed each other. This keeps our Santander main account statement page nice and neat (OCD?)


The SO's all go out on the day they're set-up for. I believe via the faster payments system so happen within 2 hours max?


You may find it beneficial to draw up a spider-type diagram as you're just getting started. Main account in the middle with 2 way arrows to your other accounts showing required SO's and reverses. It does help get your head around it and can flag up any missing SOs.

darkidoe

I use the cycling approach for money transfers mostly via Standing Orders. Starting from my main hub HSBC, I cycle the monies through all the various accounts leaving enough behind in each account for the respective regular savers before the 'leftover money' ends up in First Direct. I will the manually transfer this to whichever account I need to use the money. SOs cycling starts on Day 1 of each month with the next account down the line doing their transfer the following day. I always also make sure the balance is enough for the transfers to go through even without the transfer in. The cycle ends on day 3 of the month. I draw a flow diagram and stick it to the wall to remind myself of the grand plan.

YorkshireBoy

darkidoe wrote: »

I always also make sure the balance is enough for the transfers to go through even without the transfer in.

So why do you leave a day before sending the payment on (and lose money in doing so)?

darkidoe

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

So why do you leave a day before sending the payment on (and lose money in doing so)?

I was initially suspicious that the banks want to see at least a day on the statement that there has been a positive inflow to qualify as a pay in. But I think that's not true. I have one inflow and outflow that happens on the same day on my Santander 123 and it seems to work fine. I suppose it could work as well if I make all payments happen on the same day but I reckon it ended as it is because I was being cautious and trying it out by the next day method.

ceredigion

I use the hub, spoke, rim approach as described by Colseten. All the accounts on the rim are fed by SO, and back to the hub. All the interest is collected by DDs, even if DDs are not required. Mrs Ceredigion has her own hub set up just the same. Sitting in the middle is a joint S123 which is fed by the DDs via Tesco's saver's. To complicate things slightly all the regular savers are in my wives name but fed from my hub, purely because she is a non tax payer and it reduces the balance in the account that has the capacity .