Government Help to Save account - regular payment. 10 December 2022 at 11:15AM in Savings & investments 2 replies 181 views

WinstonTown

Hi everyone, stupid question alert!
What account name are you using when setting up a regular payment to the Help to Save account? Everything I have tried has bounced back, and I can’t see anything on .gov, only the bank details.

Thanks

Neil_Jones

The account name shouldn't make any difference.

IIRC you need to put your account number / reference / whatever as part of the reference field and the provided account/sort cod details,.

If the payment is bouncing back that usually means one of three thigns:  you've either not got enough money to pay it in the first place, you have typed the details in wrong or you've already paid in £50 this calendar month (the website says "you cannot pay in more than £50" which suggests it will auto bounce)

Band7

You get a sort code and an account number to make a payments to. This is all that's needed to make a payment. For the account name, you can use M. Mouse or D. Duck or your own name, it won't make a difference - your bank won't be able to name-match as the HTS account is not part of the Confirmation of Payee scheme, so you have to ignore the warning messages you get when you set up your payee.

You can verify that you are using the correct sort code and account number because you can pay in any amount between £1 up to a maximum of £50 a month. As long as you don’t exceed the £50 monthly limit, you can pay into the account as many times as you want. So use the 'trick' we have been using for years - send £1 first. Then check whether it has arrived in your HTS account (this may not be instant). Once you have seen the £1, you can then send your remaining contributions to this self-verified payee.