They automatically put in 20% of whatever you add to the account. So when I get the invoice for nursery, I take 20% off and then add that value to my account. When I then go on the account, the full nursery balance is on there. It can take a couple of hours for it to be added.
Usually within 24 hours. Remember it's capped at £500 of top up per quarter, so £2k a year total.
Oh wow I thought being the gov they would take longer. So would I use that bank acc to pay the nursery or do I need to move to my personal banking to then pay the nursery? Sorry very new to this
So you pay money into your account (you'll have a sort code, an account number and an account name/reference) and then you use your account to pay the nursery (the nursery should have given you their bank details) You'll have a ref for your account to give the nursery so they know it's yours. You can do 1 off payments or set up a payment. We do a payment each month as it changes depending on how many weeks the month is.
It’s quite quick then set up the nursery’s bank on your tax free childcare account and it pays it directly to them for you. So you don’t need to transfer money from that account to yours then nursery as that’s long winded x
Amazing. Thank you for the information today ladies! X
Within 24 hours usually of your money going into the account. 48 hours over bank holidays. I put mine in the month before though, so I'm always ahead. You just need to make sure the money is leaving your bank at least 5 days before the nursery payment goes out - I'm sure that's what the suggestion is.