Just an idea to get around bank charging....

PBA

The OP's first post was very sensible, but a lot of what he's posted since got a little wierd. If you're regularly paying bank charges because you haven't budgeted properly, then it makes sense to cancel those direct debits and pay the bills in cash. Saving a couple quid a month to pay by DD is nothing if you're then regularly paying £20-£30 bank charges for those DDs.

Al_Mac wrote: »

People who can't run a bank account, wont improve with cash. Money management is money management, whichever method you use.

Yes and no. With DD you need to make sure you've got enough money available on the date the company chooses to collect it. If you're paying in cash you can pay your bills whenever you want, so you can get the bills paid straight away on payday and you know the rest of the cash is yours to do whatever you want with!

For the majority of people who manage their money fine and don't go over their limits then paying by DD is the sensible way to go, means you can't accidentally miss payments and it's cheaper. However if you're regularly paying bank charges then it makes sense to get rid of the cause of the charges. Stop paying by DD, standing order and debit card, and do everything in cash.