Make a deposit
Making a deposit
When you deposit money with Stoa, in doing so you are also opening a Stoa Pot. Therefore, you should only ever deposit money as part of the process when opening one or more Stoa Pots. In other words, you should not directly transfer money to your Stoa Pots account outside of the deposit journey (hence why we do not display your full account number by default in the web app).
Why do I need to connect my bank?
Before you make a deposit with us, we require that you 'connect' your bank account to Stoa. This means that:
We can securely verify your bank account information, without you having to type in your account information manually.
Deposits are more secure – when we create the payment instruction, we can pre-populate the payment details, so all you have to do is authorise the payment transaction from your banking app.
Allows us to create a richer, more personalised experience for you when you're using Stoa. We can recommend certain Perks you might be interested in based on your spending behaviour, or let you know of any subscriptions or one-off purchases (you are currently paying for) that you can get for free by opening the relevant Stoa Pot.
Connecting your bank
You can connect your bank at either of two places:
When you are making a deposit – we will prompt you to connect your bank account if you do not currently have an active connection.
From your My Pots page – at the top right-hand side, you will have the option of connecting and disconnecting a bank account.
Both options follow the same process:
Either scan the QR code with your mobile device or, alternatively follow the web link.
Authorise the connection from within your bank environment.
Once you have authorised the connection, Stoa will perform a CoP check to verify that the bank account connected is in your name, before accepting the connection.
If I connect my account, can Stoa take money out?
No – connecting your bank account simply authorises Stoa to view your account details and transaction information. We cannot make any changes, including sending payments from your Connected Bank.
My bank is not showing in the list
If your bank is a UK registered bank, but it is not appearing on the list of supported banks, then please reach out to our support team and we will be happy to take a look and come back to you.
Can I connect multiple banks?
No – you can only connect one bank at a time.
If my bank is not connected, will I still receive my deposit back (when my Pot expires)?
Unless you have opted for a Renewal, we will always return a deposit back to the bank account it was originally sent from. This is true even if you don't have an active bank connection (for example, because your bank connection expired and you did not reconnect it).
If you connect a different bank account, this will also not impact where your deposit is returned to. So if you opened a Stoa Pot from Bank Account A, it will always be returned to Bank Account A, irrespective of whichever bank account is connected at the time the deposit is returned.
How do I disconnect my Connected Bank?
To disconnect your bank, simply navigate to your My Pots page. At the top, you will see your current Connected Bank. By clicking on the vertical three dots, a drop-down will appear, with one of the options showing "Remove access". Simply click here to disconnect your bank.
Payment rails we use
For transaction payments below £20,000, we accept Open Banking payments. Note that Open Banking payments use FPS (Faster Payments) under the hood, however with its own set of limitations that are not always the same for FPS.
For transaction payments above £20,000 inclusive, we instead prompt you to complete your deposit another way, at your discretion. We will present to you the full account number and sort code of your account at Griffin bank, so that you can complete your payment. For these payment, we accept manual bank transfer or CHAPS.
What is the Open Banking payment limit?
The Open Banking payment limit varies from bank to bank. Because these are known to change on occasion, for simplicity, we enforce Open Banking payments for any transaction payment that is below £20,000 (which is around the lower limit for most banks).
Although there is a technical Open Banking payment limit on the bank level, note that certain banks will have a user-specific Open Banking payment limit in place. Therefore, you may need to adjust your individual Open Banking payment limit.
Why am I getting an alternative payment screen?
In the event that your transaction payment is above £20,000 inclusive, you will be shown an alternative payment screen instructing you to make the deposit to your Stoa Pots account. On this occasion, we reveal to you your full account number and sort code so that you can complete the deposit outside of Open Banking.
Note that whichever method you choose to initiate the payment is at your discretion. We support manual bank transfer (Faster Payments) payments and CHAPS. It is your responsibility to engage with your bank to make the transaction payment accordingly.
It should also be noted that, if you intend to complete the transaction payment via manual bank transfer, you may be subject to certain daily limits that your bank imposes. For example, if you are making a transaction payment of £50,000 and your bank imposes a daily manual bank transfer limit of £25,000, then you may have to complete the transaction payment by making two payments of £25,000 across two days.
Deposit limits and fees
We do not charge any fees for inbound and outbound payments between your originating bank account and your Stoa Pots account. However, your originating bank account may charge its own fees.
Any deposit limit will be enforced ahead of time, before you can make the payment transaction. For example, if the total deposit size for the Pots you intend to open amounted to more than £100,000, then we will notify you ahead of time and prevent the deposit journey from moving ahead accordingly.
Our deposit limits are not fixed and may change over time.
Tracking a deposit
You can track the status of a deposit on the Stoa web app once it moves into a Processing state. This simply means that:
For Open Banking transaction payments: we have received acknowledgement from our Open Banking provider, Yapily, that the payment has been initiated but is not yet completed. This may be because your bank is temporarily holding the payment (for example, because they need to ask you some questions around the payment before it can be authorised).
For other transaction payments, such as manual bank transfer: if only a partial amount has been so far received, you will see the Processing screen showing each amount.
Can I complete a transaction payment by making two or more smaller payments?
For Open Banking payments, as the payment information is pre-populated, we require that you authorise the amount in full (by simply authorising the transaction from your bank once prompted).
For other payments (where the transaction payment amount is above £20,000 inclusive), this may require you to make two or more payments to complete the full transaction payment amount. Therefore, we support you making payments in instalments to arrive at the full amount. When you do so, you will receive real-time feedback so that you can see exactly how much has been received and the remainder to transfer. Please ensure that the instalment amounts equate to full transaction payment amount exactly once completed. Any amount in excess of this will be returned to its originating bank account.
List of supported banks you can connect
We support the following banks through our Open Banking system:
ABN AMRO
AIB UK Personal
AIB UK Business
Amex UK
Bank of Ireland Business UK
Bank of Ireland UK
Bank of Scotland (Personal)
Bank of Scotland (Business)
Bank of Scotland EU (Commercial)
Bank of Scotland UK (Commercial)
Barclaycard
Barclaycard Commercial Payments
Barclays Personal
Barclays Business
Barclays Corporate
Barclays Wealth
Capital One
Zempler Bank (Formerly Cashplus)
Cater Allen
Chase UK
Chelsea Building Society
Cooperative Bank (Business)
Coutts & Company
Cumberland Building Society
Danske Bank Business UK
Danske Bank
First Direct
AIB UK Personal - First Trust Bank
AIB UK Business - First Trust Bank
Halifax Personal
Handelsbanken Business UK
Handelsbanken UK
Hoares Bank
HSBC UK Business
HSBC Net
HSBC Kinetic
HSBC Personal
ING
Lloyds (Personal)
Lloyds (Business)
Lloyds EU (Commercial)
Lloyds UK (Commercial)
MBNA Personal
Metro Bank
Mettle
Monzo
M&S Bank
Nationwide
Natwest
Natwest Bankline
NatWest ClearSpend
Payoneer - UK
PayPal
Royal Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland Bankline
Royal Bank of Scotland ClearSpend
RBS International ClearSpend
Revolut
Sainsbury's Bank
Santander
Soldo UK
Starling Bank
Starling
Tesco Bank
thinkmoney
Tide
TSB Bank
Ulster Bank Bankline (NI)
Ulster Bank NI ClearSpend
Ulster Bank (UK)
Unity Trust
Vanquis Bank
Virgin Money
Virgin Money (Essential)
Wise
Yapily Mock
Yorkshire Building Society
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