Banks that process transactions on non business days

RG2015

Does anyone know which banks process transactions on non business days?

For example I have an outbound standing order dated Saturday 23rd May but the inbound standing order scheduled for the same day will only come in on Tuesday 26th May. If my bank was debited on Saturday but only credited on Tuesday I could be overdrawn for three days.

My enquiry in this case is academic as I know that the three banks in my example do not process transactions on weekends or bank holidays. However, it did get me thinking how I would find this out quickly and also if they changed their processing days at some point in the future.

penners324

Starling and Monzo certainly process on non banking days.

colsten

The only one I am aware of which does SOs 7 days a week is Tesco. Most of the others process them on the next working day if they would become due on a weekend or bank holiday. Natwest/RBS/Ulster might take the money from your account the working day before they are due, but not actually send the money until the next working day. I say might because they were meant to change it but I have lost track of how they are doing it now. Someone else will no doubt know the current status.

Other transactions, such as one-off Faster Payments are processed by all banks on a 24x7 basis.

To be certain you don't fall foul of possible differences between banks, your only safe bet is to only schedule SOs if your account balance covers the payment without needing any top-up on the payment day.

ischris85

colsten said:

Other transactions, such as one-off Faster Payments are processed by all banks on a 24x7 basis.

Interesting, I transferred £1,000 from Nationwide to HSBC around 9pm this week, which went through fine. When I tried to transfer it back, HSBC gave me a notice as this was requested after the cut off time, it would be processed the following day.

colsten

May be a temporary Covid restriction, or just the result of some maintenance that all banks have to do at some time. They usually carry out maintenance outside of what are general business hours for the majority of their customers.

Ed-1

ischris85 said:

colsten said:

Other transactions, such as one-off Faster Payments are processed by all banks on a 24x7 basis.

Interesting, I transferred £1,000 from Nationwide to HSBC around 9pm this week, which went through fine. When I tried to transfer it back, HSBC gave me a notice as this was requested after the cut off time, it would be processed the following day.

First Direct and M&S have always done this too. All part of HSBC.

[Deleted User]

colsten said:

The only one I am aware of which does SOs 7 days a week is Tesco. Most of the others process them on the next working day if they would become due on a weekend or bank holiday. Natwest/RBS/Ulster might take the money from your account the working day before they are due, but not actually send the money until the next working day. I say might because they were meant to change it but I have lost track of how they are doing it now. Someone else will no doubt know the current status.

Other transactions, such as one-off Faster Payments are processed by all banks on a 24x7 basis.

To be certain you don't fall foul of possible differences between banks, your only safe bet is to only schedule SOs if your account balance covers the payment without needing any top-up on the payment day.

Banking convention has SOs only going out on bank working days.
Tesco Bank ignore this convention as they are essentially batched up Faster Payments encoded as standing orders. 

[Deleted User]

penners324 said:

Starling and Monzo certainly process on non banking days.

Starling don't process direct debits at the weekend. It will show up as pending/due out on Sat but won't go until Mon.

Lomcevak

penners324 said:

Starling and Monzo certainly process on non banking days.

Strangely, Monzo process standing orders on non-banking days if you set the standing order up in the Monzo app, but if the standing order was transferred to the Monzo account via the current account switching service then they are only processed on banking days. You have to delete them and recreate them. 

dunstonh

Check the dates.  Many of the banks will show Monday's transactions on the statement on a Saturday and have for decades.    Is what you are seeing on a Saturday or Sunday actually using Sat/Sun dates or using Monday's date.

RG2015

dunstonh said:

Check the dates.  Many of the banks will show Monday's transactions on the statement on a Saturday and have for decades.    Is what you are seeing on a Saturday or Sunday actually using Sat/Sun dates or using Monday's date.

I have extensive experience of NatWest and their current system is quite revealing.

I can make a payment on a Saturday or Sunday or even late on Friday evening and it will show online with that date. This will continue to show this date until NatWest update their transactions at about 2:00 am on Tuesday morning at which point the date is changed to Monday's date.