Standing orders for account funding criteria.

B0bbyEwing

Example - Nationwide's FlexDirect requires funding £1k per month, Halifax & Lloyds require funding £1.5k per month.

^ It's that that I'm referring to.

Currently I do everything manually which I've done for years but it's got to a point now where on the one hand I'm tired of it (let's say quite a few accounts need hitting) but on the other hand, it's free money or avoiding fees.

As the largest amount needing funding is £1.5k I was looking at sending this on a Standing Order journey & then ending back up at base.

To simplify the journey I was thinking:

Account 1 > £1.5k 1st/month > Account 2 > £1.5k 2nd/month > Account 3 > £1.5k 3rd/month > Account 4 .........................and so on until they're all done.

This will eventually run in to the situation where an account gets paid on a Friday, is supposed to pay another account on the Saturday which is supposed to pay a third account on the Sunday which should pay a fourth account on the Monday.
Not only that, sooner or later the Friday I just mentioned will be bank holiday Good Friday and the Monday will be Easter Monday.



Now I'm not wanting to space these transfers out if it's not necessary but at the same time I don't want an account to be trying to pay another account when it itself hasn't been credited yet (even though the SO will be in place).

Now I'm quite sure that some of you must automate these payments. The question is - is what I'm suggesting here likely to run in to a problem come the weekend / bank holiday scenario?

dcs34

Possibly, yes. I used to have a load happen on the same day as some banks will try multiple times throughout the day to catch-up. And sometimes it would happen but not show online, or would show on the sending bank but not the receiving bank leaving me in no-mans land for a day or so until it all worked itself through.

So either:

• Do it manually, and then you're in control
• Spread them out by 5 days (to ensure no issues between Thursday before Good Friday to the Tuesday after Easter Monday)

I went for the former option as it is easier to adjust each month if account needs change.

B0bbyEwing

Thanks for the response though does anyone have a yes/no definitive on this?

Else I'll just have to wait until next week to try it out and assume that Easter weekend will be the same.

Manually is an option but I'm trying to free up my time here. If I wanted to stay manually then I wouldn't ask the question. I also don't really want to spread the days out so far unless i have to.

If it matters then the banks involved are Halifax, Lloyds & Nationwide*.


The biggest cycle would be for my wife & I - 

2x Halifax sole name accounts
1x Halifax joint

repeat for Lloyds (2x sole, 1x joint)

1x Nationwide FlexDirect for wife
1x Nationwide FlexDirect for me
1x Nationwide FlexAcc for me.

Now I don't think the FlexAcc has a funding requirement, I just do it anyway because Nationwide in the past have pulled little stunts like needing 3 months of funding to qualify for something so if I do it anyway then it's done. Plus it keeps it kind of active.


To my knowledge, Halifax & Lloyds can fund from within but Nationwide need funding from external.

The origin of the £1.5k will be a Chase 1.5% savings account.




*Don't even bother saying. I can see that reply coming a mile off

Nebulous2

How important in your life is the flexdirect? Are you past the initial 5% interest period? 

I had quite a few bank accounts and did the shuffle manually on the 1st of every month. I rationalised my accounts last year and my flexdirect has been sidelined. 

I had forgotten that it needed £1000 a month until your post, haven't been doing that, and nothing has happened. I still have a regular saver, a couple of minor DDs and received a bonus for switching another account in - though I can't remember if that was before or after I stopped funding it. 

I still fund Lloyds to get my £3 a month back. 

Not a recommendation, but if your banking isn't dependent on it, you might find Nationwide don't care. 

phillw

Nebulous2 said:

I had forgotten that it needed £1000 a month until your post, haven't been doing that, and nothing has happened.  

I think it's only to get the interest. I need to redo my monthly round robin & I will probably drop nationwide.

B0bbyEwing

Ok this isn't meant in a rude manner, though I suspect it may get taken as so & there's not really much I can do about that I'm afraid...

To try and clear the situation up, if I wanted to know how to reduce 9 accounts down to #-accounts then I'd have asked how do I stop funding 9 accounts. I didn't ask that because that's not what I'm looking to do.

Also if I wanted the most foolproof way of meeting the criteria, which I already know is manual transfers, I'd have asked the question - what is the most foolproof way of meeting this criteria. I didn't ask that either because that is also not what I'm looking to do.

So to try and get this back on track somewhat, I'm specifically asking about setting up standing orders to meet the criteria but where these standing orders wont fall short due to weekends or bank holidays. 

Crediting criteria is nothing new so I was banking (no pun intended) on someone over the years having tested out what I'm asking about & could say X-works but Y-doesn't. I don't know the answers because I have always made manual payments - which I'm looking to stop doing.


Regards Nationwide, I've answered that one in a previous post in this thread but to repeat myself - 

Yes, I know Nationwide will not care if I fund it with £1000 or not.Neither will Lloyds or anyone else. Nobody is going to phone me up and say hey we're deeply offended, can you fund your account please. 

As I've already stated, I fund Nationwide because in the past they've pulled stunts like giving you an offer which requires having an "active account" that they determine as having received an amount of money each month for the past 3 months. I think originally it was £750? Maybe £500, I can't remember but also it doesn't matter either as the point remains the same. 

So by continuing to fund the Nationwide accounts, if they give out offers in the future, I wont need to wait 3 months to start crediting it with money, it will already be in place as I'll have done it.
Plus I have an amount of cash in the FlexDirect so crediting it just ticks the interest box for that account, even if it is just pence.


As I think this one will get lost in it all again, I'll repeat on this part too - I don't want to set the delay between standing orders at 5 days if I can set it at 4 days and have it work. I don't want to set it at 4 days if setting it at 3 days works, same for setting it at 3 days if 2 days works etc.


I really hope that clears things up as I'm not sure how else to explain it.

Rich1976

Standing orders are only processed on a business day so you will need to go through a calendar and work out when during the year you will not be able to set it for the 3 day frequency you want. Christmas and Easter are the two main examples I can think of. So if 5 days ticks all the criteria to ensure the amounts are transferred correctly for all months of the year then that is how you will need to do it.

molerat

The only one guaranteed to work 100% of the time is 5 clear days such as 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st & 26th with 26th being the latest date to cover Feb.  3 clear days, 1st, 4th etc covers just weekends, 4 clear days, 1st, 5th etc covers bank holidays.  The biggest problem one is Easter as that falls on different dates so there is not a simple solution as for Christmas.

B0bbyEwing

I'm surprised. I would've thought that someone would've ran the test and seen what happens by now so that rather than "this should work" it would be a "this does work but this does not".

It looks like the only way I will get an answer to the question (as in whether less than 5 days works) is to set it up and see what happens but be on guard to maybe need to credit an account so I don't get hit with some non-payment charge or whatever.

As every 5 days just wont work for me with the number of accounts that need doing. I'd need to send off multiple amounts from the Chase account rather than 1 amount & let that 1 figure do its thing.

molerat

Why would someone want to spend the time checking every single weekend and bank holiday date for the next several years to see what works when the simple answer is 5 clear days with 26th being the latest transfer covers all eventualities.  4 clear days, again with 26th being the latest transfer, covers everything except Easter. 3 clear days covers most eventualities of weekends and bank holidays with a need to be aware of Christmas, Easter and any other 2 day bank holiday the government decides on.

Daliah

Rich1976 said:

Standing orders are only processed on a business day so you will need to go through a calendar and work out when during the year you will not be able to set it for the 3 day frequency you want. Christmas and Easter are the two main examples I can think of. So if 5 days ticks all the criteria to ensure the amounts are transferred correctly for all months of the year then that is how you will need to do it.

There are odd banks process standing orders 7 days a week. The rest all break for the same number of days each weekend/bank holiday season. Don't think any of the ones @B0bbyEwing mentioned are among the 7 days ones, so weekends/bank holidays wouldn't matter for their scheme.

Having said this, I only use SOs if I am 100% certain that the SO amount is in the bank on the scheduled date. I still do the others manually, usually on the 1st of a month, but if need be, I have another 20-odd days each month to do it on. It only takes a matter of minutes, and with some accounts also meet the requirement of using the app at least once a month.

If you have to have your monthly money shuffle fully automated and bulletproof with accounts that don't have enough balance for the SO(s), leave a couple of days in between and incoming and outgoing SO. You can also try to get an overdraft facility for the required amount - though this might end up costing more than it's worth.