National Savings & free interest of £8

fizzypop

Purchase NS&I Index Linked Savings Certs late on a Fri evening and the direct debit will not register on your source a/c until late afternoon on the following Mon. This means a £15K invested will earn interest from the Fri. Actually as the £15K sits in your a/c for at least another couple of days so it is even better. So £15K x 4days x 5%=£8.
I found moving the £15K from a high interest a/c to a current a/c early Mon am was sufficient to beat the arrival of the direct debit late afternoon.
I guess government use remote computer bureau with batch processing which is oh so slow but its great to use it to some advantage.

Mikeyorks

A Direct Debit takes at least 2 weeks to set up, and be useable, even via AUDDIS? So I assume you're talking Debit Card.

In which case your experience is probably not typical. When they process the Debit Card (and I've had it done whilst on the 'phone with NS&I) - the transaction is authorised through to your Bank. And if the funds aren't there at that time - it won't be authorised. So it's dangerous to rely on a processing delay.

fizzypop

fizzypop wrote: »

Purchase NS&I Index Linked Savings Certs late on a Fri evening and the direct debit will not register on your source a/c until late afternoon on the following Mon. This means a £15K invested will earn interest from the Fri. Actually as the £15K sits in your a/c for at least another couple of days so it is even better. So £15K x 4days x 5%=£8.
I found moving the £15K from a high interest a/c to a current a/c early Mon am was sufficient to beat the arrival of the direct debit late afternoon.
I guess government use remote computer bureau with batch processing which is oh so slow but its great to use it to some advantage.

Yes I should have said debit card.

Milarky

Different debit cards take different times I've found

Lloyds TSB & Barclays: 2 working days M-F (eg Thu for Mon)
First Direct: 1 working day M-F (eg Fri for Mon)
A&L & Halifax 1 working day* M-Sa (eg Fri for Sat or Sat for Mon)

*This seems to apply to former or current Building Societies - eg Norwich & Peterborough is the same in counting Saturday as a processing day

(What's wrong with a cheque for this? These always allow two working days (M-F), regardless of the organisation since it's once, central system)