Direct Debits

I've seen them come out over a weekend. The bank will give you until monday to ensure you have enough funds in the account.

I use a separate account for the smaller DD's but originally I would not check it regularly and sometimes get 30 charges. I now check the balance every morning and transfer the required funds into the account. This means the bank sends out two letters (one to me and one to my wife) every day I am due to go overdrawn but I don't get charges. The letters reach us too late to avoid charges if we had been relying on them anyway.

If a DD is due on a date that is a weekend, then sometimes I've seen my bank (Abbey) reserve the money, so the cash,. although still in my bank account, becomes unavailable so I can't withdraw it via a cash machine, say. The actual movement of cash from my bank account then happens on Monday (or Tuesday if a Bank Holiday weekend).