What is a standing order?

Some standing orders may not be paid on a bank holiday. Depending on your bank, you might have to wait until the next working day for the payment to be processed. This can be the case with NatWest.

Standing orders might not be paid until the next working day if they fall on a Saturday or a Sunday. This can be the case with NatWest.

You can get in touch with your bank to confirm what their weekend arrangements are.

While you can set up specific dates for standing orders, your bank will handle the exact times they go through. This often happens in the early hours of the morning, for example.

Your bank may charge a fee if you don’t have enough money in your account to pay a standing order. You might also face late payment penalties if the money doesn’t reach a company on time.

However, banks often send alerts if an account needs to be topped up ahead of a payment. At NatWest, these are called Act Now Alerts and they’re sent on business days.

Standing orders can offer a range of potential advantages. For example:

• Time savings, as you don’t have to manually set up the same payment each week or month.
• Punctual payments, since your bank will take care of things for you each time the payment date comes around.
• Flexibility, as you can easily cancel a standing order, or change the payment date and amount.

Yes, a standing order should leave your bank account automatically once it’s all set up. This is so long as the payment details are right, and you have enough money in your account to cover it.