Using plum for 2x DDs from RBS Reward account

What_time_is_it

I’ve just set up with Plum for the sole reason of having 2x Direct Debits going out of my RBS Reward account each month. But I am very confused!!!

I set up a “Plum Interest” pot. This seems to be different to the “Easy Access” pot. My “primary pocket” shows as “East Access” I don’t understand what any of this means!

I then made a deposit of £2 from my RBS account into my Plum Interest pot. Once this was done I had the option of setting up a regular deposit, so I did this too - £2 a month every month. But no longer than 90 day apparently?!

Then I did another deposit of £2 in the same way as the first. I got no option to make this a regular payment.

So, what have I done wrong? And what should I do to make it right? Like I say, all I want is for 2x £2 direct debits to go from my RBS Reward current account into Plum (into the simplest saving product they have).

Help!

WalshSall

The 90 day thing is because you have to relink your Plum account with your bank every 90 days due to open banking regulations. It sounds like the problem is with RBS, I would contact them

What_time_is_it

Thanks. Not sure is there is a “problem” as such. It’s just that I don’t really understand what is happening! 

Should I use the Interest pot or the Easy Access pot? Can I have more that one DD? Or do I have to set up a single DD to be taken fortnightly? Is what I have set up even a DD? How do I make withdrawals?

It’s all new to me and it’s not clear at all. It’s like Plum have made up their own language and have different names for everything!

ThePirates

I do something similar but my understanding is you can only have 1 DD from Plum

WillPS

You can only have one DD for all your Plum accounts. You can set it to collect fortnightly by going in to 'Brain' and disabling everything except 'Pay Days' - which you can set to Fortnightly.

You don't need to renew the Open Banking connection when it expires if this is all you use it for, you can just ignore the warnings.

What_time_is_it

Thanks. That’s super useful. 

It’s starting to fall into place now. I’ve been thrown by the use of different terminology for things that already have names! And the words that Plum uses already mean something else - e.g. Brain, pockets, etc. Infuriating! 

WillPS

What_time_is_it said:

Thanks. That’s super useful. 

It’s starting to fall into place now. I’ve been thrown by the use of different terminology for things that already have names! And the words that Plum uses already mean something else - e.g. Brain, pockets, etc. Infuriating! 

Yes, it's important to remember their core sales proposition isn't cheap/easy DDs, it just happens to offer them as a consequence of how they do collections for their "smart" savings.

Moneybox is a bit more straightforward in terms of their offer, but sadly they only do monthly or weekly DDs. Still a solid choice for an easy way to get "at least 2 DD" conditions covered off, and the interest rate isn't so far behind that you need to babysit it to avoid losing more than a few pence a year.

What_time_is_it

Thanks.
I’ve set up Moneybox as well to do a similar thing with Natwest. A direct debit taking £2 a week into a 95 day notice account at 4.8%.

This was much easier than Plum as they actually use the long standing agreed names for things!!!

Jami74

I have weekly direct debits of £2 to Plum (Primary Pocket) from RBS. I don't bother moving the Plum money into any of their places that pay interest as I just transfer it back to RBS once every few weeks. It's literally the same £12 that goes round and round.

What_time_is_it

Jami74 said:

I have weekly direct debits of £2 to Plum from RBS. I don't bother moving the Plum money into any of their places that pay interest as I just transfer it back to RBS once every few weeks. It's literally the same £12 that goes round and round.

Thanks. So where does your money sit within Plum?

PRAISETHESUN

Set up a weekly deposit of £2. This will satisfy the RBS rewards. Withdraw it from your primary pocket back to your RBS account every so often. It's pretty much instant. I cycle the same £10-20 around every month or two.

You can also ignore the 90 day expiry for the open banking link. The DD that gets set up is independent of this and will continue after the open banking link expires. The link is only required if you want to take advantage of any of Plum's "smart" savings features, which are completely optional.