The information you’ll need to receive a payment

When it comes to paying in to your U Account, you’ll often be asked to provide the same information. Whether it’s your employer wanting to change your salary payment, or a friend who owes you some money, you’ll need the following details:

We’ve filled in the last three for you and you can find your account number by logging in to your account. It’s shown on your dashboard.

What about Extra Accounts?

Each of your Extra Accounts (except the one you get your cashback paid into) will come with its own account number and sort code. To see them, you’ll need to have enabled the “Use to pay direct debits” toggle when you create the Extra Account.

If this is the case, you’ll be able to see their details on the Extra Accounts page of your U Account. As you’ll see on the ‘Making Payments’ section, it’s possible to set up standing orders and direct debits from Extra Accounts.

Paying in to your U Account

By providing the information that are explained on the ‘Account Details for Payments’ page, your U Account will accept payments via both Faster Payments and BACS.

Please note that whether the sender of the money into your U Account is using Faster Payments or BACS depends on the sender's bank. If you're in doubt about which method will be used, you should ask the sender to confirm.

Faster Payments

Payments made into your U Account by Faster Payment will be credited within an hour of us receiving them, which could be up to two hours after the money has left the sending account. This facility applies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (including public holidays).

BACS

BACS payments to your U Account will be credited in your account by 1am on the third working day.

There's a cut-off point of 2pm, so if your BACS payment was sent before that time on a Monday, it will be in your account on Wednesday morning. If it was sent after 2pm, it will be credited on Thursday morning.

PayPoint

Simply take your U card to one of 29,000 corner shops, newsagents and retailers across the country to pay in between £10 and £250 in cash, any day of the week. You’ll get a receipt which you should keep hold of for your records. Check the store locator to find your nearest PayPoint location. Some fees and limits apply - check the fees and limits pages for more information.

Chaps

Unfortunately U Accounts can't currently accept CHAPS payments into accounts. Should a CHAPS payment be sent to your U Account, it will be returned to the sender.

Refunds

We can't guarantee when a refund will reach us. They take some time to work their way through the banking system and your U Account will be credited as soon as they're received. Winnings from gambling sites are usually processed as refunds.

International Payments

Unfortunately we don't currently offer the facility to receive payments from an international account. This also means that you don't have an IBAN/IBIC.

How to make a payment from your U Account

Single Payments

To make a one-off payment from your U Account, you should go to your Payments page and select the ‘Make payment’.

On the next screen you’ll be asked to provide the details where you’d like your payment to be sent from (it may be your main account, or it may be one of your Extra Accounts) and the details of the recipient (including their name, account number and sort code, which you should check with them beforehand).

If you’re paying to or from an Extra Account, the details will already be shown. This is also the case for any recipients you’ve paid previously, who will also show in the ‘Saved recipients’ list on your Payments page.

You may wish to make a single payment in the future. When this is the case, you’ll be able to view it on the ‘Future payments’ tab on your main Payments page.

Standing Orders

Setting up a standing order allows you to make a single payment on a recurring basis. All you need to do is follow the process of a single payment and select the ‘Create standing order for this recipient’ option at the end of the ‘Make payment’ form.

When you’ve chosen this option, you’re required to state how often the amount in question should be paid: daily, weekly or monthly. You also have the option to set a last payment date, but this doesn’t need to be set to create the standing order (if you don’t, it will continue until you cancel it).

If you’d like to cancel a standing order, you should go to your Payments page and view the ‘Future payments’ tab, where you’ll also see any single payments that will take place in the future.

Direct Debits

To set up any direct debit, you should give your account details to the organisation you’d like to pay on a recurring basis. This will all be dealt with by the organisation in question and you’ll usually be asked to complete a direct debit setup form. You can find information about the details you’ll need on the ‘Account Details for Payments’ page.

Cancelling a direct debit is simple. You simply need to go to your Payments page and select the ‘Direct Debits’ tab, where you’ll see a list of the direct debits you have set up from your U Account and a ‘Cancel’ option for each. When you cancel a direct debit instruction it can take 24-48 hours to take effect. If you have any payments scheduled to leave in that period, they may still be processed. If this happens you should contact the organisation to whom you're making the payment.

International Payments

Unfortunately we don't currently have the facility to send payments to an international account.

U Account payment times

Single Payments

If you make a single payment out of your U Account, it will leave your account immediately and will be processed in our next processing time.

Payments are processed at 11am, 3pm, 7pm or midnight on a weekday, and 3pm or 9pm on the weekend. From this point it’ll take no more than two hours for the funds to reach their destination – so, for example, if a payment is arranged at 2pm on a Saturday, it’ll be processed at 3pm that day and arrive no later than 5pm.

We may not be able to make the payment if:

• You don't have sufficient funds or it exceeds any limits we've set
• It's incomplete or unclear
• We believe the payment or instruction could break the law or breach a regulation
• Your account has been, or is likely to be, misused, or there's a security or fraud risk
• We're ordered not to by a court
• The receiving bank doesn't accept the types of payment we can make

Unless the law prevents us, we'll get in touch as soon as we can to explain why we haven't followed an instruction.

If we've left you a message, please contact us as soon as possible. If you don't, we may not be able to make the payment.

Scheduled Payments

If you've scheduled a payment to leave your U Account (including all standing orders), it will leave your account by 9.30am and reach the recipient by 1pm.

Direct Debits

A direct debit will leave your account between 3pm and 3:30pm on the working day it is due, or at that time on the next working day if required.

If there are insufficient funds in your account to cover the direct debit, the payment will fail. We won't attempt to take the payment again and it's your responsibility to contact the service provider to arrange for them to request the payment again, or for you to arrange an alternate payment method.

International Payments

Unfortunately we don't currently have the facility to send payments to an international account.