With the exception of Think Banking, Secure Trust and Cardone dont budget for you, they both provide two accounts one for bills and one for spending, it is upto you to work out how much you will need and leave that in the bills account the rest goes to the spending account. It therefore does teach budgeting. Cardone not offering Direct Debits is, in my opinion, good too as it means that you can accuretly budget what is going out for the month and set the amount that needs to goto the card each month you are in complete control and wont have any suprises such as early payments, or higher payments you would with direct debits.
Think Banking does provide a hand holding service and for some this is the best idea for them
Not wanting to get into an argument here, but I don't understand the logic of being able to budget better if you don't pay by direct debit. I pay everything possible by direct debit as it means I know it's paid, but even if I didn't I would have to find the money from somewhere as I don't think companies would like it if I phoned up and said I wouldn't be paying them!
Likewise I dont want to get in an arguement with you either. I found, and think other people must do, that with Direct Debits, the control over your account has gone to the company you are paying and they may take more, may not take at all, may take early or reinstating a cancelled instruction at the last minute etc and I found it very hard to deal with especially with my current medical problems, whereas with Standing order I no how much im budgeting and what for and I have a standing order setup to my card account so I no any bills I pay by card are also covered its helped me alot going down that route
Fair enough. One question though - what happens if a standing order is for a different amount, e.g. a mobile phone bill. Obviously the money still has to be found to pay the standing order.
I much prefer paying by direct debit - I know exactly how much is going out of my account each month and I don't have to worry about it. And don't forget if a company does make a mistake you are covered by the direct debit guarantee and the bank will have to repay the money to your account.
I pay mine by card, im on the capped tariff so its no more than £10 a month and I therefore setup a standing order from my bill account to my card account for £10 to have it covered.
I don't pay anything by card at all - the bank does it for me and the wife keeps an eye on the finances.
I wouldn't want the worry of perhaps forgetting about a payment. We much prefer DD and SO - we know the date of everything that goes out and how much it's for.
Since we've been with Nationwide we've never had a problem with money being taken out when it shouldn't have been.
A paid for account is good if you can't get a normal High Street one but we can neither afford the monthly payment or want to pay it.
Another reason I prefer to pay by direct debit is it's often cheaper - there's no way I want to pay any more than I have to! Being BR taught me a good lesson!
