Minimum Funding on accounts

datlex

In order to fulfil the monthly payment requirements on accounts I have a series of weekly SO going between accounts On tues £200 goes from account A to account B, on weds the £200 goes from account B to account C, on thurs the £200 goes from account C to account D then on Fri the £200 ends up back at account A by being transferred from account D to account A. This meets the £800 on two accounts, the £750 on another and £500 on another. (Feb having 4 weeks). Separate payment is made to cover the direct debits on the accounts.

My question is could I get all the payments to be on one day eg Wednesday each week without risking an overdraft. Or does it need to sit in your account overnight? Could I have the SO in a domino like pattern and end up with the money back in the original account via the various accounts. Account A is just a savings account in effect for me (it is a current account but has part of savings in). The shorter the time the £200 is out the better.

bigadaj

It would be ok in the majority of instances but there's a reasonable probability of a failure at some point.

A single day probably isn't enough as there will be bank holidays and no bank will guarantee processing on that day.

The other option is to sit down once a week and transfer manually by faster payments, they'll generally go through instantaneously but state it's typically two hours and could be the end of the following working day.

datlex

bigadaj wrote: »

A single day probably isn't enough as there will be bank holidays and no bank will guarantee processing on that day.

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The reason I would chose a Wednesday is bank holidays. They very rarely fall on that day (except Christmas and Boxing Day). When you say no bank will guarantee processing on that day do you mean on a bank holiday or the same day payment is received?

YorkshireBoy

Although rare, SO failures have been reported on here, NatWest/RBS having particular form for it!

Your accounts sound like Co-op, Nationwide FlexAccount, Halifax Reward, and TSB (account A)?

If you have >£800 in TSB, then personally I'd sit down once a month and make the transfers manually...in one go.

datlex

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Although rare, SO failures have been reported on here, NatWest/RBS having particular form for it!

Your accounts sound like Co-op, Nationwide FlexAccount, Halifax Reward, and TSB (account A)?

If you have >£800 in TSB, then personally I'd sit down once a month and make the transfers manually...in one go.

At least one is wrong bank from list you have given, though some are correct. Suffice to say there are other banks which offer rewards to their customers. I did have 2 accounts with one bank, have used one of those to set up one of the reward accounts. Probably leave it at that for a while.

As for once a month I prefer not to transfer all manually at once. Whole point is minimising how much goes out and for how long.

I think I will ask the banks their policy on funding to cover payments- can it arrive on same day. I can always trial a pound and check the apps/websites that afternoon to ensure everything has gone smoothly.

Each account will get more than it needs due to the payments made to fund the direct debits. I could be more precise with each account so that I only funded it exactly the amount needed including the direct debit amount. (I have a spread sheet so I know when bills are due from which accounts). However the bills are of varying amounts. One for example is my monthly reward credit card I use to pay rent. It varies depending on how many Saturdays in the month. That is paid by DD in full (double reward for paying rent ) I just find it easier to keep the funding amount and the money to cover payments separate.

YorkshireBoy

datlex wrote: »

As for once a month I prefer not to transfer all manually at once. Whole point is minimising how much goes out and for how long.

It would probably take no more than 5-10 minutes to make all your transfers. Then 30 days doing almost nothing. Before I switched to mainly SOs I could do all mine over breakfast...and I'd far more than you have to do! These days I can make all my manual transfers in the time it takes to drink a coffee (Co-op, FlexAccount, 4 Halifax Reward, HSBC, & M&S).

I think I will ask the banks their policy on funding to cover payments- can it arrive on same day.

And what if there's a failure in the payment system infrastructure?...meaning a payment isn't sent until next day? Major problem in that you'll lose some Rewards for that month?

I can always trial a pound and check the apps/websites that afternoon to ensure everything has gone smoothly.

Sounds like a lot of work for nothing to me. I still think it's best done once per month. But good luck with your system.

molerat

I do mine manually (and MrsM's so twice) on day after first working day of month between Santander, 3 x BOS, TSB (and once upon a time 2 x Tesco) and back to Santander. So £1K leaves Santander and is back there, plus all the mopped up interest, less than 10 minutes later.

jimjames

datlex wrote: »

As for once a month I prefer not to transfer all manually at once. Whole point is minimising how much goes out and for how long.

As per YorkshireBoy I do all mine manually too. I don't understand the section above about minimising how much goes out. If the requirement is £1000 then move it out and straight back in. Do it manually and you meet all the requirements with none out for more than a few minutes and the certainty that it's happened. Your method seems to be far more convoluted and risky.

datlex

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

It would probably take no more than 5-10 minutes to make all your transfers. Then 30 days doing almost nothing. Before I switched to mainly SOs I could do all mine over breakfast...and I'd far more than you have to do! These days I can make all my manual transfers in the time it takes to drink a coffee (Co-op, FlexAccount, 4 Halifax Reward, HSBC, & M&S).

I only mentioned the 4 accounts I have as reward accounts currently. Some accounts seem to take longer to pass on money to the next account than others. I had an issue with one bank where they held a manual payment up because they thought it was a lot to transfer in one go. (not one of the A to D banks). Even though it was from me to me! I guess there is no perfect way.

Chomeur

I do them all automatically i.e. by standing order, once a month. I leave about seven days between payments and haven't had any problems. Maybe I'm leaving £1,000 in an account and getting no interest on it for a week but at a typical 1% that's only 20p.