Forced to change Umbrella. Views on Giant and Paystream

[css_jay99]

I am currently with Nasa. My agency has informed me that due to up coming legislation/compliance they are reducing their umbrella list to 3, i.e. Advanced, Giant and Paystream so I have to comply next month. Not please about this but its a client wide change.


My main concerns are :

1) All savings on NI are passed to me under salary sacrifice so no slight of hand accounting that I can't work out what’s going on

2) Timely payment into pension scheme. I get paid weekly, so expectation is that all (prior 3 or 4 ) invoices paid up to e.g. 5th of the month is remitted to pension provider before the end of the same month.

3) Reasonable cost for their services as well as little errors.


Which is the better of Paystream/Giant?



Thanks

[NotAllThere]

is telling your agency to get stuffed not an option? After all, they need you to generate their income.

[Dorkeaux]

I've worked with Paystream, Giant and now Nasa.

They are largely aligned in terms of their KIDs, but there are some definite differences.

I find that how long it takes to get paid largely depends on the relationship between the agency and the umbrella rather than the umbrella itself.

If it is a new or unreliable relationship, or the payment schedule is a little off (the agency holds onto the payment for a couple days too long) they can be late paying into your pension and your bank account.
Try to work out the exact schedule between your timesheet submission, the client paying, the Agent paying and finally the Umbrella paying.
If you get it all lined up properly it can work well.
If there is a hitch somewhere it can take two months or more to see the money you earned.
Ask me how I know..

I thought Paystream was fine, but wasn't processing salsac contributions to my SIPP with them.

Giant forces you into their "Premium" package to process SIPP contributions.
It is expensive, and the other benefits in the "Premium" package are valueless IMO.
If you contact them as a prospective client they will call you constantly until you tell them to p%ss off.

Still early days for Nasa, but they seem to process salsac SIPP contributions cheaply and efficiently.

All of them pass on the saved employer NI contributions in full these days.

Ask the umbrellas your very good questions yourself (and verify my assertions), and get them to provide a KID.
Also work out the end to end payment schedule for SIPP contributions and salary.

[css_jay99]

is telling your agency to get stuffed not an option? After all, they need you to generate their income.

Not an option without me terminating my contract

[vwdan]

I was with Paystream for a while and found them to be fine. It's a few years back, and similar to you I was forced onto another provider because of my agency which was very annoying.

But yeah, I'd have no qualms going for Paystream again, had no issues, I recall speaking to them was very easy

[Ketto]

Used both, been over 6 years since i have used one but preferred Paystream in that they do fewer things which cause irritation in my experience. Would most likely use them again next time i need a brolly.

[css_jay99]

Thanks all Looks like it might be have to be Paystream. I'll double check the salary sacrifice payment period with them.

[ekim]

I was with Paystream, by choice, with their My Max option (didn’t cost much more per month) - that paid into my own pension scheme with no problem. Support was very responsive. Overall, they were the best umbrella that I worked through