Standing orders

[lavendersparkle]

A slightly worrying admission is that I've managed to get most of the way through my 20s without knowing what standing orders are.

Are they the same as when you set up an automatic regular monthly payment from your account or are they something more complicated than that?

Comments

[celestialweasel]

Yep. They are different from Direct Debits in that the amount is fixed (i.e. the company can't vary the amount they take) and, I think, they carry on until and unless you cancel them.

[hatam_soferet]

I mostly use them for regular payments to charities. You say "until further notice, pay £15 monthly to the MS Society" and they do.

[lavendersparkle]

I want to use it to set up a regular payment to Schistosomiasis Control Initiative. However, I'm a bit confused because their 'standing order form' seems to just be a gift aid form, so do I send them a gift aid form and then set up a regular payment?

[feanelwa]

I think you may have clicked on the wrong link. When I look at the website, there is a link to download the standing order form and then below it on the web page there is a link to download the gift aid form. Standing order forms for a charity are like a letter to your bank saying dear [address of bank], please pay [amount] to this charity every month, then a gift aid bit and a space for your signature. You send them to the charity and they do the bank dealing-with for you. The only time I can think you would set up a standing order online is if you want to pay a regular amount into another personal account e.g. your savings or a dependent. If it's to an organisation they always do it from their end so they can save the form in their own records.

[feanelwa]

i.e. the only time you would set it up through your online banking interface. Through a charity's own webpage still counts as it being set up from their end.