Bank accounts for Bankrupts - Discussion Thread

Merry_Gentry

isabella01 wrote: »

We are not yet officially BR but en route. I scanned threads in here to see which were the accounts that would be safe after BR..our problem was we wanted the facility to set up direct debits for our household bills and have a debit card and being in a small town there wasn't a recommended bank in the town or anywhere near us. So we looked at setting up an account online or internet banks.
I found a few which I looked into and although there is a monthly fee we have currently chosen Think Banking which is an online bank,with never ever any bank charges,never ever will you be overdrawn and you have a personal money manager. The monthly fee is £12.50 but with no more charges and the bill paying administered by you money manager,each week money is transferred into the bill paying account to cover monthly bills so you will never miss a bill payment and what's left over is yours to do with as you please.
I realise this isn't for everyone but we have been crippled every month by our present bank with charges amounting to as much as £160 in a single month!!!(less than the cost of this bank account for annualy!)
We are happy to have the bank take charge of some of our money in fact for us it will be a nice feeling to have that taken out of our hands and enable us a clear path ahead,no missed bills no bank charges..this past year or so money has become a nightmare spirralling out of control..hopefully now we'll be more in control (with their help)
It is early days so I will post here once we know how it goes.
As I said it may not be for everyone..we just feel if it works in our favour it's a small price to pay...
http://www.thinkbanking.co.uk/index.asp
Izzy

£12.50 is a lot to pay each month for banking....well to me anyway And not sure I would like having someone 'managing' my money for me - I definitely keep my finger on the pulse personally now!

sieve

Thought I'd bump this for two reasons:

1 - so it's on the front page

2 - because my barclays connect card came today

Let's hope I get to keep it longer than 6 days

sieve

dvs wrote: »

Hey Sieve

Do we know if Barclays will keep the account open as you have opened this before bankruptcy? Whilst I know they will accept accounts from bankrupts, I wonder if they follow the same procedure most banks do (i.e. freeze and close the account) when they see your entry in the London Gazette? Finger's crossed all will be well.

OK update as promised - went BR on Wednesday, spoke to OR on Thursday who said they are happy for me to keep the account and will write to Barclays (but are closing the coop account) - called Barclays insolvency team this morning to tell them this and they said my account was absolutely fine and I can carry on using it as normal since OR has no interest. So it looks like I am able to keep it. Used the card to pay some money in at a branch today and nothing was said - I guess if they'd frozen it, they'd have taken the card off me there and then...

Yay!

philnicandamy

Good news then.......strange though the OR wanted to close the co-op account (not brighton are you?)

sieve

philnicandamy wrote: »

Good news then.......strange though the OR wanted to close the co-op account (not brighton are you?)

Nope Reading - would have been fine if the Co-op one was the only one I had, but since I had Barclays as well they made me choose one or the other (said they don't normally permit more than one bank account). So I chose the Barclays because the internet banking is better and I've heard the card is accepted in *slightly* more places.

dvs

Well done Sieve and thanks for the update. Let's hope they keep to their word!

isabella01

Hi I am just wanting to add to my previous post regarding Think Banking.
I did say it wasn't ideal and not for everyone but for us for now it's working well.
Yup £12.50 a month service charge is, to some alot, banking should be free but it never ever has been for us we were paying on average £70 in bank fees and charges a month leading up to where we are now. Even when we were better off the account we held was a Royalties Gold account and it had a fee of £10 a month.
Anyway it's a matter of choice and like many services you get what you pay for..I have to say so far we have found the service excellent,friendly advice on the end of the phone,regular text meaages informing us of all transactions with money set aside weekly for our bills. What money we have on our card is what we have to use to pay for shopping,to take out of the hole in the wall whatever..a debit card for us is convenient.
I have to say there was little alternative for us..our nearest Co-op bank was 60 miles away and even with various online options most seemed to be "basic" bank accounts with no option of Direct Debit and a debit card!
I guess being a family with young kids one of whom is registered disabled we have gone for an easy (albeit at a minor cost) option.
Izzy

Tammera

Can i add please, i was reading the info on bankruptsy and it said to wait till your bankruptsy before opening an an account.

I did not do that, i didnt want to wait for a bank account. what i did was about a week or 2 before i was due to become bankrupt, i went into a nationwide account and told them i needed an account for after i go bankrupt, i told them when i was going bankrupt and they set me up an account for a bankrupt person. i got all the cards and stuff sorted out in time for the bankruptsy and didnt touch it and the day i saw the official reciever i told them about the account and the bank was aware of my pending bankruptsy and it was a basic account with no credit or debt and they was absolutly fine with me keeping it. so i had a usable bank account ready straight away after my bankruptsy.

also i would like to add, although i was with nationwide, i had no end of problems with money coming in and out and other people direct debits which the bank wasnt willing to help me with and after i had my second set of charges due to mistakes, i decided to close my account, although i had alot of problems with nationwide, they was more than happy to refund my charges, but i couldnt stay as it was going against my record, i then went to cooperative. during the 4 or 5 years i have been with the cooperative, i have never had a problem with my account, they have been more than helpful and i cannot fault them.

Dave_Gosport

I've just come across a site called 'thinkbanking' for a bank account.

As i'm new it wouldnt let me allow the link for the website, so just go onto google and type in 'thinkbanking'

Has anyone got an account with these and are they actually any good as they seem to be as it just sounds too good to be true!

fooman

It is too good to be true

4) How much does it cost?
There is a one-off set up cost of £25 which is taken from the first credit to be paid into your account.

A monthly administration fee of £12.50 is charged for running your accounts. You can choose to have a second card for additional account holders for £5.00 per month. If you are weekly-paid, the administration fee will be taken from the first income paid into your account each month.