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BACS - Bankers Automated Clearing Service: the Bankers Automated Clearing Service (BACS) is a free service for making direct credits and debits. Payments using BACS will usually take three to four working days to credit the beneficiary's account.

Balance: the amount of money you have in your account at a particular time. Sometimes a balance given by a bank will include payments that have been made to your account, but are not yet available because they haven’t cleared. This means that the money has not been received by the bank and is not available to spend. The money which has cleared and that you can spend is sometimes called your available funds or available balance.

Balance Transfer: a balance transfer is when you move an existing balance from one credit card to another.

Bank of England Base Rate: the Bank of England 'repurchase' or 'repo' rate which is the main factor influencing interest rate charges by lenders.

Bank Sort Code: your bank sort code can be found on your cheque book/paying in book or statement. It is made up of 6 digits and grouped in pairs eg. 000000.

Banker's Draft: a cheque written by a bank. To get a banker’s draft, you will need to transfer cleared funds from your account to your bank. The bank then gives you one of the bank’s cheques (banker's draft). The advantage to the person being paid is that a banker’s draft will not bounce, so they are often requested when making large purchases. Usually, banks will charge a fee for issuing a banker’s draft.

Banking Code: the Banking Code is a voluntary code followed by banks and building societies in their relations with personal customers in the United Kingdom. It covers current accounts, share personal loans, savings (including cash ISAs) and credit cards. The Business Banking Code covers small businesses with a turnover of up to £1 million a year. The Code sets standards of good banking practice, which are followed as a minimum by banks and building societies subscribing to it. It allows competition and market forces to operate to encourage higher standards of banking practice for the benefit of customers.

Bill Manager: Lloyds Bank Bill Manager is a free bill management service that allows you to view, manage and pay your bills online through Internet Banking.

Borrowing: it is a form of lending money or providing credit which can be used to buy goods or services.

Bounced Cheque: cheques bounce when there are not enough funds in the account the cheque is written from (or the account holder asked the cheque to be cancelled). The the bank will return the cheque to the account holder and not pay the beneficiary of the cheque.

Business Loan: it is a method for a business to obtain money and to spread the payments over an agreed period of time. You pay interest on the amount you borrow. This could be a fixed rate where your monthly repayments remain the same or a variable rate where your repayments are linked to the base rate and will vary dependent upon any changes to the base rate.

Buytolet Mortgage: it is a mortgage for people who want to let their property. Buytolet mortgages are available for customers who are buying a new property, moving their mortgage from another lender, switching deals or borrowing more.