Standing order question

blue.peter

This is probably a pretty basic question, but it'd be nice to know the answer.

How do banks handle the ending of standing orders? I've never known what to put as the end date for one. If I want the last monthly payment to be made on, say, 6 April and say that that's the "until" date for the instruction, will the bank make the payment due on 6 April, or will they make the final payment on 6 March? I've never known the answer to this for certain (though I can guess it), so, for over 45 years, I've chosen an end date a few days after the last payment due, but before the one after. This has always worked well... until today.

I've been funding a monthly saver with Halifax by standing order from my Nationwide current account. The last payment was due on 6 April, and was paid then. I set an end date for the instruction of 9 April (i.e., today). For reasons beyond my comprehension, Nationwide made an additional payment today. It was immediately reversed - I'm guessing because Halifax rejected it - so there's no problem. I'm just curious as to what on Earth Nationwide was up to, and wondering if I could have handled the setting up better.

Neil49

I set up a standing order on my Lloyds account last week for monthly payments on the 2nd of the month until January. When I came to select the end date it only highlighted the 2nd of the month date for me to select. I couldn't select anything else. 

In your case you should select the 6th April.

eskbanker

I suspect that there isn't a universal standard approach across all banks, and the way in which it's handled will depend on exactly what the wording is on the setup form (and how this corresponds to their underlying systems), so it appears the answer for Nationwide may differ from others....

Ed-1

blue.peter said:

This is probably a pretty basic question, but it'd be nice to know the answer.

How do banks handle the ending of standing orders? I've never known what to put as the end date for one. If I want the last monthly payment to be made on, say, 6 April and say that that's the "until" date for the instruction, will the bank make the payment due on 6 April, or will they make the final payment on 6 March? I've never known the answer to this for certain (though I can guess it), so, for over 45 years, I've chosen an end date a few days after the last payment due, but before the one after. This has always worked well... until today.

I've been funding a monthly saver with Halifax by standing order from my Nationwide current account. The last payment was due on 6 April, and was paid then. I set an end date for the instruction of 9 April (i.e., today). For reasons beyond my comprehension, Nationwide made an additional payment today. It was immediately reversed - I'm guessing because Halifax rejected it - so there's no problem. I'm just curious as to what on Earth Nationwide was up to, and wondering if I could have handled the setting up better.

Up to and including the end date

blue.peter

Thanks for the replies. Yes, @eskbanker, it does sound as if some banks handle it differently from others.

Thrugelmir

With Lloyds you set the final payment date in the future. 

md258

With most of the ones I've used, you set the date to be the date you want the final payment to be made. I've been caught out by Nationwide's way of doing it and prefer the banks that grey out the invalid dates as it is clearer.

Vortigern

Where the chosen end date is not a working day there will possiby be a payment on the first working day after the end date.

Typically a standing order to a regular saver pays on on the 1st day of each month, except where the 1st is a non banking day. It's possible that the last payment will fall on a non banking day. You need to decide what to specify as the end date.  It's easier to specify the number of payments.

Beware also that some banks process SOs on non banking days.

Over62

I just make the standing order open ended and cancel it manually when it's no longer needed.

wiseonesomeofthetime

I take @Over62 approach now after being hit twice by Nationwide making double payments on my until day.

I then just diarise it to cancel before the additional, unwanted, payment.

blue.peter

Over62 said:

I just make the standing order open ended and cancel it manually when it's no longer needed.

I see the merit of this, but I prefer to leave as much to run automatically as possible. There's always the risk that I could be unable to put the manual stop on it - e.g., because I'm in the ICU with Covid-19, or in a coma after an RTA. Yes, I know that those are pretty unlikely, but I like to eliminate all risks of this type where I can. I shouldn't need to do things like this manually. This is why I have DDs to pay my credit cards in full, too.

I guess that the real issue here is the fact that I've used a system for 45 years (with Midland, Barclays, First Direct, Santander and TSB), and it's worked for me, but Nationwide does things differently.