towerhill
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Coping with direct debits...When your earnings land in the bank ad hoc.
I've not been working recently as I have a broken thumb. As a result I've had to cancel all my direct debits and pay over the phone and at the post office. It seems that I have to do this about every six months.
When I do have work pay tends to land in my account randomly. I try to make sure there is always a "float" available. The thing is though I loose out on special "direct debit" offers from utilities and insurance etc when I cancel or I get bank charges if I don't.
Hope do you deal with this. Forget direct debits altogether?
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Penny
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Is any way you can get a few months payments in advance, into a separate account, (specifically for DDs) , and then top it up as and when money comes in? This way you can make sure there is aways enough money to cover them.
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Chez
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We have pretty much started paying for everything in cash, with one or two exceptions. Now I've got used to it, it's much easier.
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sally_in_wales
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we have a separate joint account that all the bills, mortgage etc go out of, we pay money into this as it comes in so that in theory the money is there at the start of the month to cover everything going out that month. The theory is that in a crisis we can empty every other account as long as that one stays left alone, and the bills will still get paid. We're very slowly adding to it as well with the plan being to get a buffer of at least a month's money in there, but thats taking time to accumulate.
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towerhill
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That's basically where we where in February. Six weeks with only a bit of freelance stuff coming in and the odd caravan deposit has left us skint. Luckily the OH's wages pays the mortgage and council tax from another account.
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Mary-Jane
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| towerhill wrote: | | Six weeks with only a bit of freelance stuff coming in and the odd caravan deposit has left us skint. Luckily the OH's wages pays the mortgage and council tax from another account. |
Hmmm...tricky one. We pay all our bills by DD - but then I get paid regularly each month.
Perhaps Chez and Sally combined are right. Paying cash is a habit you can get into...plus putting aside some money for bills. You'd have to be very, very disciplined though.
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Helen_A
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Hmmm - well, we have a DD account here as well. Although DP is paid regularly, its taken his employer 6 months to start paying it into the right account (job was a part time one 'just for him' originally, and became fulltime sole income last sept.), so we were having to do transfers from elsewhere and even online etc that sometimes took 2 days and sometimes 7!!  plus its a US based firm (although the europeanpay office is in cork) and they seem to be horribly affected by the combination of north american public holidays, GB bank holidays and the Irish ones being different again..
Add to that that I'm paid much like yourself (sporadic bits for freelance, plus varying from 'self' ) and that CB and CTC turns up 4 weekly not monthly and .... argh!!!!!!!
So DD works ok, but only with money put aside specifically, and our 'good credit rating' meaning that we have a scary sized potential overdraft on that account for those months that are completely out of wack! I'll admit that I'm not sure that if the OD cost us anything, that the DD savings wouldn't be wiped out by that. But currently OD is still 'free' and very low interest so for the moment it works ok.... (touch wood, fingers crossed and where's the black cat/?)
Helen_A
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