I get paid “on or around the 20th” every month. In some cases it’s earlier (if the 20th falls on a weekend I’ll be paid the Thursday before that weekend), and on those occasions I paid the rent before the 20th.

I like to manually pay bills where I can as I will then write them off in a ledger I keep, especially for rent as I tend to balance everything when I get paid.

Also, and very important point here, the previous landlord, my friend, did not care at all when I paid rent as long as it was before the end of the month.

Also by using Faster Payments bank to bank transfer my friend got the money same day rather than +/-3 days like direct debit. Again he didn’t care, but it was a nice benefit, right?