One of Beanstalk’s great features is how easy it is to trigger a one off top up to someone for whom you are saving, be it your child, your grandchild or yourself.
We’re pleased to announce a new update to the app which makes top ups even easier by adding a couple of new payment options, including immediate “Instant Bank Transfers”.
How does Instant Bank Transfers work?
Now when you make a top up through the app, you will see a choice of three ways to make the contribution. You can still use Direct Debit to make the top up, but you will now see two more choices: Bank Transfer, where we give you the payment details to arrange the transfer yourself, and Instant Bank transfer, where we connect to your bank’s online log in or app so you can authorise an immediate transfer.
We’ve worked with FCA authorised payment innovators, tomato pay, to create Instant Bank Transfers using the government backed “Open Banking” scheme. We’ve blogged about Open Banking before, but in essence when you use this payment method you are connected to your online bank or app with all the relevant payment details and references prefilled. You can then choose to consent or decline the payment in the way you would normally do with your bank. If, for example, you use your bank’s mobile app, consent may be given using your fingerprint or face scan.
The great thing is that once you have authorised the payment on your app, the transfer happens almost immediately, normally within a couple of minutes depending on the bank. We will email you a confirmation of the amount taken, the payment ID and the reference on your bank account and as for other methods, we do not charge any fees for the transfer.
We’ve excited about these improvements and hope you will be so!
Please note: The money arrives with our platform provider at the same time, but goes into a "pooled" client money account before being allocated to your specific Beanstalk account. The allocation happens several times during the day so you will not see it in your account until after this process. This is normally by end of the day, but top ups made at the end of the day or at the weekend may not show until the next working day.