A standing order lets you automate regular payments from your bank account.
It might come in handy when paying the monthly rent to your landlord on time or splitting household bills with your partner. You could also make regular payments to a business.
Or maybe you simply want to move cash to another of your accounts. For example, a savings account.
Using a standing order, you can ask your bank to pay a certain amount of money to a specific account, on a particular date. This could be the same day each week, month or even year.
You can give your standing order an end date or limit the number of payments. On the other hand, you could choose to leave it open-ended.
Standing orders can help you to organise your finances by making regular payments smoother. These could include:
The main difference is that you’re responsible for setting up and managing a standing order. You can add the receiver’s details and the payment amount as part of your everyday banking.
With a Direct Debit, on the other hand, you give a business permission to take regular bill payments from your account. This could be a utility company or mobile phone provider.
Direct Debits can also take varying amounts of money, depending on your bill for a particular month. But standing orders stay the same unless you change them manually.
You can set up a standing order via a banking app or online service. This DIY approach gives you the freedom to change your outgoing payments whenever you need to.
Before creating a standing order, you’ll need these details to hand:
Got the NatWest app? Here’s how to set up a standing order from your mobile:
You can also use our online service to set things up:
Standing orders can be paid on the same day they leave your bank account. But some payments may take a little longer depending on where the money is going.
So, you might want to give it three to five working days before getting in touch with your bank.
Depending on your bank, you may be able to cancel a standing order:
You won’t need permission from the person or business you’ve been paying. But you might want to let them know of any changes, just to avoid crossed wires.
It’s also worth giving your bank plenty of notice when exploring how to stop a standing order. This will give them enough time to process your cancellation request before the next payment date.
At NatWest, you can cancel a standing order online up to 6:00pm on the previous working day before it’s due. However, if you don’t want the payment to leave the account, this will need to be cancelled at least 48 working hours before it’s scheduled to leave.
Using the NatWest app:
Via NatWest Online Banking:
If you need to cancel a standing order and it’s within the 48 working hour window, our front line telephony teams may be able to assist in the cancellation of the standing order, rather than it being cancelled online or via the app.
Remember, once a standing order has left an account, it can’t be recalled.
