How to optimize transfers between accounts

LXdaddy

VeryMan wrote: »

that means I have to leave at least 4 days between my SOs

No you don't "as long as the balance in an account is more then the funding requirement" if one bank gets ahead sending money out before another bank sends money in... the only thing that happens is the "early" bank has a lower balance for a day or two until the "later" bank sends its money.


As pointed out the only bank (as far as I know) that sends SOs on non work days is TESCO - so if Tesco is in the chain it will send funds out on Sat 12th and receive money in on Monday 14th - so you will have two days with a lower balance in TESCO - certainly nothing to get worried about.


The only one of my accounts that doesn't run with a healthy balance is Halifax - the reward is paid even though I run a low balance. £1500 arrives one day and a few days later three lots of £500 leave (plus a couple of DDs sweep up £5 between them)

Goldiegirl

We see so many of these threads where the OP's seem to find the funding requirements for their current accounts either confusing or challenging, and tie themselves in knots trying to set up routines.


I tend to think that people should only open multiple bank accounts if they are clear from the beginning how they are going to do things - and it's not that difficult, really

anoncol

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I tend to think that people should only open multiple bank accounts if they are clear from the beginning how they are going to do things - and it's not that difficult, really

Why? I dont see a problem coming to a forum when you are confused about something. This forum is just full of know it alls. If we all knew it all, there wouldn't be a point of the forum!

Goldiegirl

Perhaps they'd be better off starting small with a couple of accounts, and building from there? It just seems so unnecessary to make it so complicated for themselves with more accounts than they can manage.

Ballard

anoncol wrote: »

Why? I dont see a problem coming to a forum when you are confused about something. This forum is just full of know it alls. If we all knew it all, there wouldn't be a point of the forum!

The thing in this case is that the op has apparently paid 150,000 cash into a branch. No currency was mentioned but being as they'd complained that a delay in clearing meant that they'd lost out on the exchange rate the assumption is that it wasn't sterling.

They've since asked advice for putting 150,000 on deposit. Again, no currency mentioned but one can only assume that it is now sterling as logically any other currency would be mentioned.

Since then they've asked how to transfer funds between accounts to satisfy funding requirements but only at 1,000 a pop.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

colsten

marina0403 wrote: »

1.In the Search box, enter General Journal, and then choose the related link.
2.On the first journal line, enter Bank Account in the Account Type field.
3.Enter a bank account in the Account No. field.
4.Enter the amount, in the currency of the bank account, in the Amount field with or without a minus sign; an amount without a sign is a debit, and an amount with a minus sign is a credit.
5.On the next journal line, enter the second Bank Account in the Account Type field.
6.Enter a bank account in the Account No. field.
7.Enter the amount, in the currency of the bank account, in the Amount field with or without a minus sign; an amount without a sign is a debit, and an amount with a minus sign is a credit.
8.If the exchange rates used in the journal are different than the exchange rates in the Currency 9.Exchange Rates window, enter a third line for the exchange rate gain or loss. Enter G/L Account in the Account Type field. Enter the G/L account number for exchange rate gain or loss in the Account 10.No. field. Enter the exchange rate gain or loss in the Amount field with or without a minus sign; an amount without a sign is a debit, and an amount with a minus sign is a credit.
11.Post the journal

Unless you know something about the OP's intention that the rest of us don't, this thread is not about transferring money to a different currency, so your detailed instructions wouldn't help in this case.

Also, no UK bank account has a "General journal".

Snakey

Goldiegirl wrote: »

We see so many of these threads where the OP's seem to find the funding requirements for their current accounts either confusing or challenging, and tie themselves in knots trying to set up routines.

I tend to think that people should only open multiple bank accounts if they are clear from the beginning how they are going to do things - and it's not that difficult, really...

Perhaps they'd be better off starting small with a couple of accounts, and building from there? It just seems so unnecessary to make it so complicated for themselves with more accounts than they can manage.

I don't agree with you there, Goldiegirl. I see where you're coming from in respect of some OPs, but plenty of people lurk without posting or look for existing threads on a subject rather than starting their own, and not all of them will be the same sort of people.

I came to this thread because I am new to this whole multiple accounts things and before I set anything up I need to get my head around how bank payments and transfers work. Not because I have had it explained to me sixteen times and still don't get it, but because so far in my life I have never needed to pay a standing order to or from an account in circumstances where the exact date is vital, and so here I am looking for information so I can learn.

I have no doubt that this is an incredibly simple process once I am clear on what it is. And since I've had great advice on this forum first when I was buying my flat, second when I had job issues, and third when I was trying to plan my pension, I came here first. It's so lovely to have helpful people who know their stuff and will summarise everything clearly, rather than me having to spend hours reading around the subject and (sometimes) still never being quite sure whether I've missed something vital.

My situation:
I have had a First Direct account for a million years, and opened a 123 account when I took out a mortgage with Santander purely because it allowed me to get some deal or other on the mortgage.

This made me realise how easy it was to run two accounts.

More recently, I've been tempted by the free money switching offers and have opened a Halifax Reward account and an M&S account. That's cleaned me out of available direct debits, since Santander also need two.

I'd now like to open an HSBC account, having seen that it doesn't need direct debits but only standing orders. I applied for that last week (I understand it takes a while) and have opened a sacrificial Santander account all ready and waiting.

On my To Do list this weekend is that I need to sort out a nice circle of money transfers. I can't set it up yet, but I want to be ready to move as soon as the application goes through.

I need to:
1. Meet all minimum pay in requirements.
2. Have sufficient money in my Halifax and M&S accounts on the day(s) when the direct debits pay out.
3. Have sufficient money in my M&S and HSBC accounts on the day when the standing orders fund the relevant Regular Saver accounts.

All that's straightforward enough - I can pay it in on pay day and it can sit there until it's needed. But also, I want to:
4. Not have large amounts of money sitting around in accounts where it is earning no interest.

So ideally I'd like to pay it in on the very day that it's needed, and for the remainder (the difference between the minimum funding requirement and the outgoing DDs/SOs) to go straight back to my 123 account on that same day.

If it's not possible - for instance if it's literally the case that nobody knows exactly when each bank will pay standing orders and direct debits, or whether there's a gap between standing order money leaving one account and arriving in another, or whether an Out and an In on the same day causes an unauthorised overdraft or not - then fine. I'll play it safe.

But it seems daft to be leaving a "cushion" totalling over three grand in non-interest-bearing accounts, or be paying money in 7-10 days before it needs to be there, on a "just in case" basis because I'm too embarrassed to ask the questions in case people think I'm unintelligent!

tl;dr -
1. What are the rules/procedures for the dates when DDs and SOs are paid out of an account (including weekends, bank holidays, month-end dates)?
2. Are they the same for all banks?
3. Are these rules/procedures set in stone or do they sometimes work differently (unpredictably)?
4. Are SOs between different banks like Faster Payment transfers i.e. they leave and arrive simultaneously, or do I need to allow x number of days for it to go through?
5. What if something comes in and goes out on the same day but the transfers hit the account such that it goes out a few hours before it comes in - is it all just netted off at the end of the day, or would that be an unauthorised overdraft or the outbound payment would fail?

Thanks!

xylophone

You say that you have a Santander 123 account and a Santander mortgage.

Presumably you have kept all cash back DDs in your Santander 123 account?

If you need more DDs, have you considered opening Tesco Savings

accounts? DDs can be set up on these to pull money from your current accounts.

You are keeping the First Direct account so as to take advantage of the Regular Saver?

Can you provide details of exactly how much you have in the accounts and which accounts you want to service and when?

ceredigion

anoncol wrote: »

Why? I dont see a problem coming to a forum when you are confused about something. This forum is just full of know it alls. If we all knew it all, there wouldn't be a point of the forum!

For me personally , I don't mind pointing people in the right direction ,possibly stimulate a thought process or confirm something that isn't initially obvious. However I draw the line when it comes to explaining the process in minute detail to those that obviously have no intension to go and look for themselves be it that because they are just lazy or incompetent .

Snakey

Ooh! Absolutely I can. Thank you for caring.

I've got payment dates all over the place because when I initially set up the direct debits there was no reason to choose any date in particular. That's an additional complicating factor that I'll need to work around.


FD - I have this for my Regular Saver (goes out on the 15th, although the last payment was 15th June so I could have a new date for the new one if needed) but also it's my spending money account - I take out cash from here, and it auto-tops up my Oyster too. I don't use any of the other debit cards.
Salary gets paid into FD on 28th (or thereabouts). I then work out how much spending money I need in the next month, since that's variable, and I transfer everything else to 123. I also leave the Regular Saver amount (£300) sitting in here until the 15th, although as part of this re-working of my finances I might transfer it to the 123 for two weeks and then back again (earning me a whole extra £4.50 a year in interest, but hey, it all mounts up).

123 - is for bills and savings. I have an interest-only mortgage but every month I make a voluntary payment of some capital in order to get the full £10 cashback. I have all my utilities in here except for gas and electricity (because I needed to transfer four DDs but only had two that weren't cashback-able so something had to go). The minimum pay-in is easily met by the manual FD transfer. My 123 account always has money in it (current balance about £10k and it increases each month) so I don't need to concern myself with exact payment dates from this one.

M&S - minimum pay-in is £1,000 (has been made for June).
Regular saver will be going out on the 4th (£250)
Gas and electric DDs go out on the 31st (£10 each).
So far I have been going in and manually making a payment back out to my 123 account, but I'd quite like to do this automatically.
Current balance is £25, being £20 for the DDs and a £5 cushion.

Halifax - minimum pay in is £750 (has been made for June).
I get £5 reward each month.
Two DDs go out on the 22nd-ish (£45) and the 24th-ish (£105).
So far I have been going in and manually making a payment back out to my 123 account, but I'd quite like to do this automatically.
Current balance is £150 (for the upcoming DDs) plus a few pence.

HSBC (doesn't exist yet) - minimum pay in is £1,750.
Regular saver (doesn't exist yet) - will be £250, on whatever date I set it up, which depends on when the account is opened.
Two SO's, totalling £1,500, will go out on a date of my choosing - not sure where to (can it be to the same account? I may just pay it back to my 123, or I may try to be clever and use it to fund either M&S or Halifax en route).
I believe I need to set up the SO's within my sacrificial Santander account so that they can then be transferred as part of the account switch.

Ideally I would leave small amounts - £20 or less - in each of these three accounts, for the sole purpose of not being caught short if any of the DDs increase and for some reason I don't find out in advance.

I have not at the moment given consideration to the other interest-bearing current accounts (TSB and one other whose name I forget), because it seemed that you could only keep a relatively small amount in each one and also that the savings rate was tiered so you only got the "headline" 4% or whatever it was on the top slice. I decided that for the sake of the extra hassle of setting up DDs and transfers I'd just be content with the Santander 3%. However, my facts may be incorrect as I didn't research it in detail.