Paydog Blog

Standing Order Payments in the UK do not go out on a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday.

For more details see Payments on the Weekend.

Most of the UK has eight permanent bank holidays per year: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

However, Scotland also has 2 additional Bank Holidays : St. Andrew’s Day on and 2 January.

Northern Ireland has two extra public holidays : St. Patrick’s Day on and the Anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.

To mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee there will also be an additional bank Holiday on June 3rd 2022.

England and Wales bank holidays

Scotland bank holidays

More : For more information see UK Govt Bank Holidays

Most of the UK has eight permanent bank holidays per year: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Faster Payments

Payments using Faster Payments can be made and typically clear in about 10 seconds. The can be made on all weekends and bank holidays. These are typically one-off payments made when you use online or mobile banking.

Standing Orders

Although Standing Orders are often sent via the Faster Payments scheme, they still operate only on weekdays. Standing Orders falling on a weekend or bank holiday will be sent on the next working day.

Direct Debits and Credits

Direct Debit and Credits are processed by most banks using BACS.

Since BACS only run on business working days, this can affect the payment dates. BACS usually takes 2 business days to complete, so if a payment is due to go out on a Saturday, it will instead be made on the Monday.

For credits to you account such as payroll, most providers will adjust the submission date so that you get your payment early.

Direct Debits and Credits on Bank Holidays

BACS is also unavailable on bank holidays so payment dates can also be delayed.

E.g. Monday 31 May 2021 is a bank holiday in the UK, which means that the process for debiting/crediting payments due on the following Tuesday and Wednesday in both cases will need to start a day earlier than normal. 

For example, if any Direct Debit or Direct Credit payments are to be debited / credited on Tuesday 1 or Wednesday 2 June 2021, then the latest submission dates are Thursday 27 and Friday 28 May 2021, respectively. 

Next : See full BACS Calendar or more about UK Payment Schemes.

I am often asked “can you put a hold or reserve money on a Bank Account”. The purpose being that the merchant then wishes to decide to bill the user at a later point and wants guaranteed payment. I.e. to know that these payment will clear if requested in the future.

This sounds an easy task and something that all Banks and debit cards should be able to offer. After all credit card companies offer this service.

The reason for this not being possible is not a technical one but a legal one and more importantly a fundamental definition of what a Bank Account actually is.

If you think about what a Bank Account is and is legally defined as, it’s actually a record of what a Bank owes you. It’s actually a contract to state that it will return this money to you.

A Bank Account is a record of what a Bank owes you.

So the problem with reserving funds comes when you try to state how much money do they actually owe you. For example if the Bank owes you £10,000 and but let’s say we want to reserve £2,000, how much does the bank actually owe you?

You might instinctively say well the bank owes you £8,000 as I have £10,000 but £2,000 of this is reserved. But hold on, either I have £10,000 or I have £8,000 which is it? Make up your mind. If I have only £8,000 then my balance is £8,000 and not £10,000 so it is effectively transferred already. Which it legally has been if this is reserved by someone else.

So in summary reserving ownership of funds is actually the same as transferring the ownership of funds since this is all money the Bank owe you. Legally a Bank Account is a record of an obligation of how much money they pay you.

This is the reason you cannot reserve funds for later payment or billing.

The solution for merchants who wish to make sure they will get payment to this is use an Escrow service.

Photo by: Will Porada

Want to know the difference between CHAPs and Bacs?
How much can I transfer using Faster Payments?
How long does a cheque take to clear?
What is the Link Scheme?

For these and more questions answered see details of the 6 UK Payment schemes