I’ve been thinking about where I currently use standing orders. My biggest one is the monthly transfer of funds from my current account, where I receive my salary, into a joint account. The joint account covers the mortgage, bills etc.
When I set it up I had to consider “what if my salary is a day late? And when do most of the bills come out?”. So it becomes a balancing act of choosing the date. The API driven model means I can just have a script that checks each deposit and makes the transfer when my salary goes in. It can even warn me if my pay seems short this month and abort the transfer until I decide what to do.
Another transfer I do is to transfer spare money each month into an ISA. Since the amount varies slightly each month a standing order is no good. Again, a simple script can do the maths for me and make the transfer. And again, it can issue warnings like “your calendar says your car insurance is due. Do you still want to make this transfer today?”
Based on the above, the API model of banking has clear advantages. So will the standing order be just something your grandma still uses (the way I see cheques now)?
What other normal banking features can an API and simple script do so much better?
