Bacs Bank Holidays 2027: When UK Direct Debits and CHAPS Don't Process

Bacs (Direct Debits and Bacs Direct Credits) and CHAPS don't process on weekends or on England and Wales bank holidays. Bacs runs on a three day cycle (input, processing, entry), so a single bank holiday pushes every payment in flight back by a day.

2027 Bacs and CHAPS non-processing days

Substitute days

When a bank holiday falls on a weekend, the next weekday becomes a substitute bank holiday, and Bacs and CHAPS close on it. In 2027: Christmas Day falls on Saturday, December 25, so the substitute day is Monday, December 27; Boxing Day falls on Sunday, December 26, so the substitute day is Tuesday, December 28.

Bacs follows the England and Wales calendar even for customers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so days like St Andrew's Day or St Patrick's Day are normal processing days.

Direct Debit timing around a bank holiday

A Direct Debit collection must be submitted two working days before the collection date. When a bank holiday sits in between, submission moves a day earlier. Counting two Bacs working days back from the collection date gives the deadline:

curl "https://bankday.dev/v1/business-days/add?calendar=uk-bacs&date=2027-12-29&days=-2" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BANKDAY_KEY"

See also: Bacs calendar · T2 holidays 2027 · how to calculate business days