Bills Paid By Direct Debit

[emmie]

can anyone enlighten me why direct debits don't come out of one's account at weekends.
mine are mostly paid the 15th which is today, but nothing has come out of my account.

[emmie]

i am not so much worried if they come out later, but i do like to keep things straight bills wise.

[Buenchico]

The rules for companies using direct debits state that, if your payment would normally be due to be taken at a weekend (or on a public holiday), they must wait until the next working day before taking it.

I assume that it's so that there's human oversight (rather than having everything done by computers) to deal with problems if things go wrong. i.e. if a company accidentally takes £1000 out of your account, when they should have only taken £10 out, possibly leaving you with no money to buy food with, you'll want to be able to speak to someone at your bank as soon as possible in order to get your money refunded. That could be tricky if, say, the money was taken out on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend and you'd got to wait until the Tuesday before your bank opened.

[emmie]

chris banks can be contacted by phone at the weekends, so there shouldn't be a need to worry if there is a problem, - i know the banks aren't open at the weekend if you physically have to go to one.
i just would like my money to be taken when they say, if its saturday it shouldn't matter. never mind presumably they will all be paid monday.

[davebro]

I think it's just that the payments system doesn't operate at weekends.
My pension comes on the 1st of the month but if that's a weekend or BH I get it on the previous working day.

[davebro]

"From start to finish, a Bacs transfer time usually takes three days. Although it's an electronic system, it gets the weekend off, so payments can only be sent and received on business days (Monday to Friday)."

[emmie]

thanks to both of you, i just wish they didn't fall at weekends... i like to get my bills out of the way...

[barry1010]

emmie, it shouldn't be a problem now you know that bills due on a weekend or bank holiday will be taken from your account on the next working day.
Money due in to your account, such as your pension, will be paid on the day before the weekend or bank holiday.

[emmie]

Barry i do know, but i always worry about when bills come out, making sure that everything is ship shape...

[pastafreak]

You could change the date your bills are paid, but there will always be months when payments fall on the weekend.
The plus point is that money going in will be early. Every cloud has a silver lining...;)

[William51]

It is because banking is only done on a work day which is Monday to Friday.

[William51]

With Monday to Friday banking you can look at it another way. When no money is changing hands at the weekend you have got nothing to worry about.