£1 Direct Debits for Bank Accounts

stevec59

Hi Everyone,
I've always used the Post Office Online Saver to act as a Direct Debit for the many Bank accounts that I have, I just opened a Barclays account to do the Rainy Day saver and get 5% intrest on £5k, so I've just  opened a new Online Saver with the post office to do this, but I can't do it! I looked at my other accounts and noticed that there was no money going in, I phoned the Post Office and they said that they stopped Direct Debit payments as a way of putting money into your account< I've tried doing a Direct Debit from Barclays to The POst office, but that doesn't work either, obviously the Post office have stopped this both ways, so now I need lots of new Direct Debits to get intrest on all my accounts, I already give quite a bit to charity, what other Direct Debits are available that I can break even on?

Many Thanks,

Steve 

grumbler

Savings accounts accepting DD's  - long running discussion on savings board. Read from the latest posts back for some ideas.

grizzlegrizzle

Also Plum and Moneybox - these are apps that are meant to help you save but are really useful for creating small direct debits. Plum will let you link your bank account and take a minimum of £1 per week. With Moneybox it has to be £2 per week. You can then send the money back to your bank account so no cost to you.

You can even make a little money by signing up through TCB!

You will need access to your bank's app to link them and I know that the Barclays app doesn't work for some. 

keiran

Just to make the point that for DDs with RBS and Natwest, the DD has to be over £2 to get the rewards

AmityNeon

How many accounts do you have that require direct debits? Of the four accounts that offer ongoing monthly rewards (Barclays/Co-op/NatWest/RBS), each of them can be sustained by a single mandate. Moneybox and Plum can be used for two of them (Co-op if necessary as it requires 4x payments), so you only need another four standard/monthly sources.

If you really can't find other items to pay (e.g. bills, credit cards, TV Licence, investment platforms), there are other providers offering savings accounts that accept direct debit funding, such as Charity Bank, Ecology and Scottish Widows.

In a pinch, you can link bank accounts to PayPal and add money to your PayPal account manually (app only), though this is usually better for switch offers as the process cannot be automated.

stevec59

grizzlegrizzle said:

Also Plum and Moneybox - these are apps that are meant to help you save but are really useful for creating small direct debits. Plum will let you link your bank account and take a minimum of £1 per week. With Moneybox it has to be £2 per week. You can then send the money back to your bank account so no cost to you.

You can even make a little money by signing up through TCB!

You will need access to your bank's app to link them and I know that the Barclays app doesn't work for some. 

Thanks for that, I've just had a look at plum on YouTube, looks good, if I go for the free version can I have multiple pockets, so I can set up Barclays into 2 separate pockets and do the same for all my other accounts?
I need to go through my over accounts to see if I'm loosing the intrest, it might be worth closing some if the intrest is low, or switching them get the reward and then close.

I also had a quick look at Getpark.co.uk, that allows you to save monthly and get a gift card, I'd probably go for Amazon as I spend a bit of money there

Katiehound

Be aware that get Park are not covered by financial services.
 
I get 2 x £10 M&S gift cards- think that's about £1.66 per month.
I would chose another retailer  (such as Tesco) but those cards are much dearer!

adindas

Katiehound said:

Be aware that get Park are not covered by financial services.
 
I get 2 x £10 M&S gift cards- think that's about £1.66 per month.
I would chose another retailer  (such as Tesco) but those cards are much dearer!

@Katiehound Could you pull money by DDs from various account to Getpark ?

How does it work, it is by pulling money to giftcard that you could spend via particular supermarket ?

What is the minimum amount to be pulled by DD could it be £1 or lower ?

Presumably is not free ?? If no how much does it cost  ??

Thx

Katiehound

adindas said:

Katiehound said:

Be aware that get Park are not covered by financial services.
 
I get 2 x £10 M&S gift cards- think that's about £1.66 per month.
I would chose another retailer  (such as Tesco) but those cards are much dearer!

@Katiehound Could you pull money by DDs from various account to Getpark ?

How does it work, it is by pulling money to giftcard that you could spend via particular supermarket ?

What is the minimum amount to be pulled by DD could it be £1 or lower ?

Presumably is not free ?? If no how much does it cost  ??

Thx

As far as I know you can only have one account so therefore you could only have one DD from one bank a/c.
You might be able to create 2 accounts by recording your name slightly differently eg Mr A.D. Another and Andy Another. I have accounts with Tesco that won't amalgamate because there is something different in the way both name & address are saved .

It pulls money in 12 instalments and then you are posted the gift card in Oct/Nov (it's a Christmas savings club after all!) the first payment (for 2023) went out Dec 1st, last is Nov 1st. I assume if you start later in the year then instalments are altered but end date will remain.

There are various gift cards available but the only one that I can see of a small denomination (and that I would use) is M& S. In theory I think you could choose just one £10 card and that would be around 80 pence per month. I don't know if they have a minimum DD. I've never tried.
Many of the cards are £50- Tesco ones are a good bit dearer- in value I mean

The cards don't cost any more than the value- presumably they buy them at discount- 

I have used Park for quite a few years when I was scratching around for yet another DD! and I still need it....

PRAISETHESUN

With Plum, you can link multiple current accounts but only one of them can be set as your primary account. This account is the one that a DD is set up on. If you change your primary account then the DD mandate on the previous account gets cancelled and a new one is set up on your new primary account - meaning only one DD at a time.

There doesn't seem to be anything stopping you registering for multiple Plum accounts however with different email address, which you can then link to multiple current accounts to generate multiple DDs. You just need to log in/out of the app each time you need to switch between them.

adindas

PRAISETHESUN said:

With Plum, you can link multiple current accounts but only one of them can be set as your primary account. This account is the one that a DD is set up on. If you change your primary account then the DD mandate on the previous account gets cancelled and a new one is set up on your new primary account - meaning only one DD at a time.

There doesn't seem to be anything stopping you registering for multiple Plum accounts however with different email address, which you can then link to multiple current accounts to generate multiple DDs. You just need to log in/out of the app each time you need to switch between them.

I have not done that so it is also interesting know, whether it is just a matter of Login/Logoff and selecting a different current account to target from where the money will need to be pulled into plum.

The potential problem here that I could see is the confusion from the system as cancelling direct debit, it will need to be set up again. Both parties Plum and The Banks might get annoyed.