Alliance & Leicester - 1 year later

Gambit

I changed my current account in Feb last year to the Alliance & Leicester last year as it was/and still is the best on the market with its 12 month interest free overdraft...etc... Its going to be a year at the end of the month so I was looking to move it over again since I will no longer have the interest free overdraft and also I dont like not getting bank statements in the post. Sounds weird but prefer to be sent bank statements to file away and look at before I do, otherwise I just forget.

Does anyone have any suggestions what account I should move to?

FAO: Currently have a bog standard Barclays account that I use for 'Spending Money' and have recently closed a Lloyds TSB and Natwest account (so as I understand wont be seen as a new customer with them until 6 months have passed - correct me if I'm wrong)

Many thanks for any info...

Caped_Avenger

All depends what you're looking for. Good rates? Good service? Internet Banking? Telephone Banking? Branch Banking?

cadboll

Hi. Just posted a new thread relating to Abbey's current account - not sure if it matches what you are looking for, but the rate is good -
http://www.abbey.com/index/cash/current_accounts_index/current_account.htm

Gambit

Caped_Avenger wrote:

All depends what you're looking for. Good rates? Good service? Internet Banking? Telephone Banking? Branch Banking?

Ok, well think good service and internet banking is a must. As its my current account I'm trying to stay around the zero mark as I plan to pay off my overdraft before I close my A&L account. Some sort of interest free overdraft would be nice to have as a buffer though...

Branch and telephone banking not needed at all since I do most things online now with Egg Money Manager (which unfortunately I started using before the cash incentives )

Gambit

cadboll wrote:

Hi. Just posted a new thread relating to Abbey's current account - not sure if it matches what you are looking for, but the rate is good -
http://www.abbey.com/index/cash/current_accounts_index/current_account.htm

Thanks Cadboll. Was looking at Abbey actually but didnt realise that they have a good regular savings account too. Any feedback on what their service is like from current customers?

ticktockhouse

My first posting, I believe, after many a month spent lurking :hello:

Anyway, I signed up for an A+L account very nearly one year ago, mainly to take advantage of their interest free OD, as there had been some possibly ill-advised ebaying by my SO...

I got my salary changed to this account and I have a standing order set up to move it to my main account (Smile) on the same day, and this seems to work a treat. I'm going to move my overdraft from Smile to here when the 0% period ends to take advantage of their low OD interest rate, plus using this as my main account will mean I have access to my salary 3-4 working days earlier (we never seem to have made this gap up, even over a year ). I'll leave bill payments, DD's etc. etc. on the smile account to hopefully separate everything out, i.e. just transfer bills amount over each month.

Other than that, I have a £1000 0% BT to pay back over the next 9 months (HSBC card), and I do all purchasing that it's possible to do on my Smile CC to take advantage of the (paltry, I now realise) 0.5% cashback and pay it of in full to avoid monthly interest, though I may ditch this in a few months to take advantage of better offers (especially as Smile have just upped their interest rate to 10.9% APR).

A coupla questions of my own:

1. Does anyone know if there is a better OD interest rate than A+L?

2. When would be a good time to apply for a cashback CC? I applied for (and got) my HSBC card middle of Dec 05

Thanks Moneysavers! :beer:

PS, applied for the Barclays £100 loophole account this morning, I *think* I got it, time will tell..