Here’s how to manage direct debits and cycle money to get current account perks.
It’s a good idea to have more than one current account, but with each extra account comes more admin. The good news is that most of the task can be done in one go early on, and then looks after itself! Here’s how I do this for all my accounts.
Current account admin
From cashback to monthly rewards, there are all sorts of incentives and freebies you can get with multiple current accounts. And don’t forget bank switching bonuses.
But many account switches and perks require extras like direct debits or minimum deposits each month. They also have fees and other requirements. Get them wrong and you could miss out or even lose money.
All this can put some people off. But it’s actually a lot easier to manage than you’d imagine, and I think the reward is well worth the effort.
Regular readers will know I have 15 different current accounts at the moment so I’ve got to have processes in place to make sure I don’t accidentally go overdrawn on one or miss out on a perk on another.
Minimum transfers
Many accounts require me to pay money in every month. If I didn’t I could miss out on all those little bonuses or get charged a monthly fee.
The good news is the money doesn’t need to remain in the account, and in most cases doesn’t need to be in one go, so you can hack this by moving the same money through all the accounts. Still that’s potentially a lot of transfers to process, which can take time.
If you have more than two or three accounts, then automation is the key. Set up standing orders to move the money on the same day each month. You can do this easily in your online or app banking.
If you do have multiple accounts with the same provider, transferring between them often doesn’t qualify (eg Halifax to Halifax), so you’ll need to factor this in.
Remember, it’s not just minimum deposits you need to cover here. There are those account fees, and in some cases you’ll want to be adding money to regular savers each month, so they need to be factored in.
There are three methods here:
The endless cycle
One trick is to move the same cash from account to account so it cycles through each one and back to the start, then repeats itself the next month and so on.
For example, you’ve got £2,000 in account a, which you transfer to account b, then to account c, then account d and finally back to account a. Then it repeats the next month, and so on.
The back and forth
Another option is to set up a standing order out of one account into another, and then back the next day. And then move the money into another account and back.
So you’re move £2,000 from account a to account b, then back to account a. Then move £1,000 from account a to account c, then back to account a. And so on.
It makes sense to spread these out through the month so you’re still only moving the same amount of cash. to make sure there is cash in the account to leave it in the first place.
The bitesize transfer
If you don’t have a large amount in your account to keep moving around, you can split the requirement into smaller chunks.
You can use either the endless cycle or back and forth methods to automate this – you’ll just have more standing orders in action.
Let’s say you have an account requiring £2,000 each month, you could use the same £500, and just deposit it and withdraw it four times to total a cumulative £2,000.
Account fees
Reward accounts are great – though you normally need to pay for them. As long as you’re making more that you put in then they can be worth it.
Direct debits
Quite a few switching offers and perks require a couple of direct debits each month. Often it’ll say ‘active’ direct debits, which technically could include any payment that has been taken in the last year.
But for the most part these direct debits have to come out every month to qualify – ruling out annual or quarterly payments.
If you run out of the obvious direct debits, there are a few easy ones you can set up which won’t cost you anything.
Collect rewards
Not all accounts will pay directly into your account. Instead, you sometimes need to cash out your payments.
- NatWest Reward (You need to log into the MyRewards site)
- RBS Reward (You need to log into the MyRewards site)
Log into the app
There’s one final ongoing requirement with some accounts – you might need to log in to your online banking or app on a regular basis.
How I manage multiple accounts
Andy’s top 3 current account perks
- Santander Edge: 1% cashback on bills and 6% savings account
- Club Lloyds: free Disney+ or cinema tickets
- First Direct: £250 interest free buffer and 7% regular saver
Making sure everything is OK
The standing orders and direct debits should all take care of themselves, but I’ll always check in. In part that could be required to trigger a reward, or to claim the perk itself.
But most importantly it’s to ensure nothing has gone wrong and there’s no risk of going overdrawn. I’ve set up two spreadsheets to keep an eye on things.
The first tells me all the standing orders and direct debits in and out of each account. If I need to amend the size of a standing order (for example when switching banks), I know exactly which is which. It only updates if I change bank.
The other spreadsheet is more active. Every month I open up the apps for my accounts and write down the balances. I try to do this in the first week of the month. This way I know exactly how much I have in each account, and overall.
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What each account requires
Minimum transfers
These accounts that require a minimum deposit each month to trigger perks. Remember some bank switch offers might also require this.
| Account (a-z) | Perk | Monthly deposit required |
| Barclays Blue Rewards | Free Apple TV+ | £800 |
| Bank of Scotland Vantage | 3% interest on £4,000 to £5,000 | £1,000 |
| Chase | 1% cashback on groceries and travel spend | £1,500 |
| Halifax Rewards | No fee | £1,500 |
| Club Lloyds | Free Disney+ w/ ads or 6 cinema tickets and no fee | £2,000 |
| Nationwide FlexDirect | 5% interest and 1% cashback (year 1 only) | £1,000 |
| NatWest Reward | £2 reward after fee | £1,250 |
| RBS Reward | £2 reward after fee | £1,250 |
| Santander Edge | 1% cashback on bills | £500 |
Account fees
You’ll need to pay a monthly fee to have the following accounts, though in a couple of cases you can avoid paying this.
| Account (a-z) | Perk | Monthly fee |
| Barclays Blue Rewards | Free Apple TV+ | £5 |
| Halifax Rewards | No fee | £3 (avoided if you deposit £1,500 a month) |
| Club Lloyds | No fee | £5 (avoided if you deposit £2,000 a month) |
| Monzo Perks | Free railcard, Uber One, free cinema tickets, free Greggs | £7 |
| NatWest Reward | £5 | £3 |
| RBS Reward | £5 | £3 |
| Santander Edge | 1% cashback on bills & 6% saver | £3 |
| Triodos | Ethical banking | £3 |
| TSB Spend & Save Plus | £5 a month | £3 |
Direct debits
You won’t want all of these accounts, but just to give you the full idea, here are the account perks that require direct debits.
| Account (a-z) | Perk | Direct debits required |
| Club Lloyds | 3% interest on £4,000 to £5,000 | Two |
| Halifax Reward | 3% interest on £4,000 to £5,000 | Two |
| NatWest Reward | £2 reward after fee | Two |
| RBS Reward | £2 reward after fee | Two |
| Santander Edge | 1% cashback on bills | At least two |
| Zopa Biscuit | 2% cashback on direct debits | At least one |
Debit card spend
This is a more common requirement for bank switching, but you might need to use your debit card for some perks
| Account (a-z) | Perk | Debit card use |
| Chase Bank | 1% cashback | Capped at £1,500 spend a month |
| Nationwide FlexDirect | 1% cashback for one year | Capped at £500 spend a month |
| TSB Spend & Save | £5 cashback for six months | 20 payments a month |
| TSB Spend & Save | £5 cashback | 20 payments a month |
| Trading 212 | Up to 1.5% cashback | Capped at £15 cashback a month |
Collect rewards
These accounts require you to manually withdraw rewards.
- NatWest Reward (You need to log into the MyRewards site)
- RBS Reward (You need to log into the MyRewards site)
Log into the app
You must log in to the app to qualify for these accounts.
- NatWest Reward – every month
- RBS Reward- every month
Isn’t there a limited number of bank accounts to switch to? I have switched quite a few times in the past few years but find I am running out of banks to switch to. By the way, how do I find out when I opened certain banks accounts ?- unfortunately I did not keep track of this.
I have 10k to invest where would you advise me to put it? I already have a fixed 1 year with 5k with Lloyd and a 250monthly regular saver, plus 2easy savers of 50 monthly.
I also have. RBS savings account with 15k but want to invest 10k of this and keep 5k just in case I need to get quick access
Do you think I need to see a financial advisor?
Thank you for your time
Hi Andy,
Some Switches require you to pay in a certain amount each month. Does this mean I can just pay the money in and then immediately take it out and repeat for each month?
Yes! Unless it specifically says the money needs to stay in the account until you get the bonus (eg with Virgin Money) then you can just withdraw it straight away.
Hello Andy,
Thank you for this post!
It is very reassuring as I have a few current accounts and linked “member exclusive” saving accounts & have done for years…I must say I’m having trouble seeing what’s what though..
I was wondering if you happened to have a template of your spreadsheets you use to keep track. I have a Money Dashboard account but it doesn’t have every account available – especially savings accounts.
Thank you for imparting your knowledge and your time Andy, you are clear in how you explain so complex stuff!! Thank you!
Hi Hannah. Yes, it can be a pain, and a real frustration that not all accounts (particularly some credit cards) aren’t available via those aggregator apps.
The spreadsheet is really simple so it won’t take long for you to create one in Google Sheets. It’s simply the name of the account and the balance. Then I have a total for the current accounts, a total for savings and a total (owed) for credit cards, with an overall balance total too.
At the end of the month I spend five minutes updating all the balances just to keep an eye on where things are!
I use Paypal to satisfy the 2 Direct debits on my Barclays account to get the monthly Blue reward bonus. Me and my wife both have Paypal accounts, so first I send £1 to her (using the pay a friend option) and make sure it is set up to come from my Barclays account. Then she withdraws the £1 and then sends me a £1 using the same technique, which then comes from my Barclays account. I then withdraw the £1 from my Paypal account.
HIi,
Please can you tell us how much you make from each ac by doing this?
Hey Andy. I have a ‘good’ credit score. How impactful on my credit score would it be in general terms to open another current account needing a hard credit search? And the impact of another account showing as recently opened? I wouldn’t want my score which I’ve worked hard at improving to significantly drop again. Thanks
What about the dates of the transfer, for example, you set up the transfer for the 1st of the month, but it’s a Saturday, then say the Monday following is a bank holiday, how would you plan for this? Just worried that the I may not have the right amount in the account. The reason I ask is that I need that amount back in my main account as quickly as possible, hope you follow my train of thought there.
Thanks,
Mike.
Yes, this can be an issue. I tend to leave a few days to allow for weekends (and bank holidays!). Remember, you don’t always have to move the money in one go. Say it’s £750 to transfer, you could move £250 there and back three times, do there’s less chance of you not having what you need in the account
Wow, you do well to keep on top of them all! Do they all have internet banking?
Yes, all online and have apps – though the M&S app is pointless!
Car lnsurancce via NFU, a Which? Best Buy, is available at 0% by DD. M&S Home lnurance also available at 0 %. Some separate Electric & Gas offers can be less expensive. l use a carousel system to qualify. Money leaves & usually returns same day. Anyone know a better deal than Santander 123 on Utilities, General & Water Rates cashbacks? They offer cb on their own products too, all covering the £24 annual fee suiting my circumstances. Can pay in cheques at P Offices – some open all day Sats & part Suns.
I would never have thought of paying money to an account and back like that!
Yeah it just does it all itself. Though it can mean there are a few days where you might think you have less than you actually do!