Bank accounts for Bankrupts

As questions come up quite often about what bank accounts are available to BRs, I thought I'd put this together for everyone. Obviously, you'll have to weigh up the pros & cons of each account according to your own situation, & your original bank may have allowed you to keep your bank accounts with them (:j- lucky you), in which case the info below may not be of use to you. Hopefully it will be a help to those who won't be able to keep their accounts & need to get their money paid in somewhere asap.


Co-op Cashminder account

Good points -

• Comes with a Visa Electron card, which can be used online, high street shops, for bill payments & at Link machines.
• You can also set up direct debits on the account, & it has internet banking.
• You can pay money into it at the Post Office, as well as at Co-op branches.

Bad points -

• Can take anything from 1-4 weeks to set the account up, depending on the amount of applications they've got.
• They don't seem to have publicised it, but they seem to operate a "3 strikes & you're out" rule (see this post), so you have to be prepared to keep a close eye on your account otherwise you might lose it.
• The internet banking isn't always up-to-date at the close of business, so your online balance may not be a true reflection of what's actually in the account.
• Not all branches are open on weekends.
• There aren't many branches.

Barclays Bank Cash Card Account

Good points -

• You can withdraw money from the post office, Barclays or Woolwich cash machines.
• Transfer money to other accounts by phone 24 hours a day.
• Can pay bills by direct debit or standing order.

Bad points -

• Only comes with a cash card.
• No internet banking.

Nationwide Flex Account

Good points -

• Can be set up virtually on the spot in the branch
• Can be used for bill payments by direct debit
• Has internet banking
• Some Nationwide branches are open on weekends, so you can pay cash in over the counter if you wish.
• You can set up several e-savings accounts allocated to specific things you want to save for, & these get a better rate of interest than the Flex Account itself.

Bad points -

• Only comes with a cash card.
• It is difficult to get the account upgraded further down the line so that you can have a debit card. It's been said that it's easier to open another Flex account & ask for a debit card at that stage, than to try to upgrade an account that was opened with bankruptcy in the application.

Updated (Feb 2008):

The Nationwide Flex Account is no longer a good/guaranteed account for undischarged bankrupts - please refer to fermi's pst below for further details. Due to a recent change in their policies, whether you get the account while undischarged will largely depend on the Head Office decision, so please do not rely on what the local branch staff tell you. Whether you get to keep a pre-bankruptcy account or get to open an account while undischarged isn't up to them.


** EVERYONE * *

If you have any queries about bank accounts, please post them in the main part of the Bankruptcy forum & not in this sticky. If you post queries here, not only will it make it harder for others to find the relevant info on what bank accounts are available, it will also maker it less likely that people will respond to you, as they won't be expecting to see queries in a sticky. If members find a particular bank is amenable to BR's, then it's very useful to have the info & the sticky can be updated, but otherwise please can we keep this sticky query-free. Thanks.