What is Standing Order?
A regular payment instruction you set up with your bank to send a fixed amount to another account. Unlike Direct Debits (which are pulled by the recipient), standing orders are pushed by you. Some switch bonuses accept standing orders as qualifying activity alongside Direct Debits.
A standing order tells a bank to send a fixed amount to a named account on a schedule — weekly, monthly, or on set dates. The account holder controls it entirely: the amount, the timing, and when it stops. That's the key contrast with a Direct Debit, where the recipient pulls the payment and the amount can vary.
Standing orders do a lot of quiet work in the switching-and-saving world. Many regular savers require the monthly deposit to arrive by standing order from a current account, and accounts with "pay in £X per month" conditions are commonly fed the same way. Some switch bonus terms count standing orders as qualifying activity alongside Direct Debits, though most specify Direct Debits.
During a CASS switch, existing standing orders move to the new account automatically along with Direct Debits, so a switch doesn't break the payment plumbing that regular savers depend on.