But what if we pinky promise we wonât spend the money if they do ask for it back?
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I wonder what other banks do - do they just accept the risk?
(If I recall correctly, @N26throwaway has said that some pay 24 hours early, overnight. Is that right? Who does it?)
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HSBC never did it in the many years that they were my main account, so I am with you there. Doing it manually with 
was my first experience of it. Maybe some other banks did so, but not all
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Same. HSBC never did/offered this while it was my main account. Monzo was my first experience too.
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Do HSBC offer GPE?
I know it was always visible in the main online banking platform for years.
Me too. I love that it applies to more than just salary too. Iâve had pet insurance claims early, or refunds. As long as its Bacs, its possible ! 
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monzo was also my first experience of get paid early , didnt see it in bank of scotland or lloyds
Barclays was my main bank prior to Monzo, and they deposited my money shortly after midnight the day before.
Itâs not a consistent story everywhere though, and I suspect, under the hood, it depends if the originating account is with the same bank or not, as was the case for me.
I know other banks can pay you early as well, and I think itâs similar, but none Iâve banked with at all were as quick as Barclays. Itâs not really early at the point though, as they essentially just constantly shift the date at which it lands.
I am interested to learn about the differences and similarities though, which is why I asked, but it seems it was missed. 
Going by what I know from Monzoâs attitude to risk elsewhere vs what Iâve experienced with other banks, I do wonder if it is perhaps a risk thing, and Barclays are happier to accept it. Barclays would always refund me at the very first point of contact when raising a dispute, Monzo do it at the very end. Barclays will reverse a pending charge no questions asks under the prevision the merchant could still claim it. Monzo want a lot of evidence that isnât always possible to obtain let alone provide. So it certainly could be a risk factor here too.
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The only bank I know of which pays you early is Barclays, as they show all Mondayâs incoming payments on the Saturday. They donât do it because they want people to get paid early, itâs just how their payment processing works. I donât think they do it for other days of the week, e.g. incoming payments on Wednesday wonât be available on Tuesday. At least Iâve never noticed any.
NatWest (and presumably RBS) used to do the same but they stopped it several years ago as it confused too many customers. It wasnât just Mondays incoming payments that were shown on Saturday, but all Mondayâs outgoing payments too and NatWest got lots of complaints about this leaving people with no money over the weekend.
Nationwide and First Direct have never paid early because Iâve had accounts with them for 30 years, so I would have noticed by now. Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, and TSB donât pay early and I donât think they ever have. I presume HSBC is the same as First Direct and doesnât pay early. That only leaves Santander and Virgin/Clydesdale, and I donât know about them.
So itâs certainly not common for banks to pay you early, rather the reverse.
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They do!
For as long as I can remember now, Iâve always had one of mine done on a Thursday. Dating back to pre-Barclays when my account was with Santander after the bought up a chunk of building societies who happened to be the ones I banked with way back when. Moving from Santander to Barclays resulted in that payment hitting my account just after midnight on Wednesday.
Now with Monzo, that now procs at 4pm Wednesday if I choose to claim, else itâll go in Thursday just like it used to with Santander. A bit later than Santander, actually. Especially in summer when Monzo are one hour behind the rest of us.
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Hey ! Sorry for the delay, I wasnât aware of any other banks offering a GPE like feature as standard so was digging in to that to clue myself up before replying !
I canât speak for competitors, but the reason our GPE is from 4pm is that it relates to the cut-off after which the sender canât cancel the credit. If we paid earlier than this and the sender did request to cancel (e.g. âOops! We forgot to remove this ex-employee from payroll so need to cancel this specific paymentâ) then we would be responsible for the cost.
You can imagine how this could be exploited to cost one unlucky bank a whole lot of money !
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No worries! Appreciate you taking the time to answer! 
The issue with other banks is they really donât talk about it. I donât think Barclays mention it anywhere for instance. Itâs just something you might discover through switching your bank account over the years, as in my case with Barclays.
And then if you trawl discussion boards online you might find references of folks sharing experiences with other banks doing it too.
I think it can be more common if youâre paid on a Monday, with the way those old systems work, you might get it on a Saturday, so itâs kinda early, but not quite as early as Monzo.
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It does sound rather like something about how the banks are handling Bacs internally. This is pure speculation, but maybe something like âif a Bacs payment has been received for X amount of time, pay it.â with a job that runs every few hours and checks for âoverdueâ Bacs payments to mop up anomalies after the main batch job. By Saturday, a payment that was due to clear Monday wouldâve past that thresholdâŚ
Now that I think about it, I remember I used to get paid earlier than other people if my bank was the same bank that my employer used in one of my previous jobs - which I now suspect was something to do with handling a Bacs credit differently if the sender and recipient were both within the same bank. I wonder if it could be something like that in the mix too for your Thursday â Wednesday one 
The possibilities are endless 
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Yep, this was my case too, so itâs probably something to do with it!
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When I worked in teaching the school banked with Natwest, and I banked with Natwest so Iâd, sometimes, get paid earlier than those who banked elsewhere.
It didnât always happen, and I had no choice over whether it came in or not and there was no visibility over the payment until it appeared in my account.
Definitely prefer our version (but I am biased ;))
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I actually remember something like this happening for me many many moons ago with RBS.
Basically payments would clear faster inside the same bank but that was a hidden perk as you had no idea who your employer banked with nor any control unlike Monzo which is far far better.
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I remember when at uni, some people got Student Loan paid in earlier than others, but that all depended on which bank they were with. Probably cause the loan payment came from the same bank. Itâs probably easier for a bank to reclaim the money on their own system internally than it is with a 3rd party bank.
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What a great read! I love the GPE feature and been using it most months. Getting paid early and then more recently using the âsalary sorterâ combined with the bill pots and âpay from potâ virtual cards made my life so much easier.
I used to bank with NatWest and remember always getting paid a full day earlier then everyone else but wasnât sure if this was due to the âsame bankâ thing mentioned above. I know I got a letter from NatWest saying they were stopping it due to âregulartory changesâ or something to that effect.
I now use GPE in combination with Google Sheets export and IFTTT to automate my âsalary sorterâ since both my monthly outgoings and monthly wages vary slightly from month to month.
I have noticed recently that iâve been getting a âlots of people are being paid early so it might take a little longerâ message almost every month, but I do usually request on the stroke of 4pm.
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I have noticed recently that iâve been getting a âlots of people are being paid early so it might take a little longerâ message almost every month, but I do usually request on the stroke of 4pm
Thats probably the most likely time youâll see that message, as the queue is at its max at the start, and unless youâre quick enough to be at the front of the queue, your payment will take a moment to complete.
Out of interest - what impression do you get when you see that message? A few folks have mentioned it and Iâm wondering if we should give it a little polish
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Out of interest @joerowe, in a hypothetical world where GPE happened automatically, would you still have the same scaling issues? Or would the same process you use for overnight payments catch it?