Do banks do credit checks on existing customers when opening new savings accounts?

glitterjunkie

Hey everyone

Just a quick q...me and OH are in the process of buying a house, yay! We need a new savings account to stash the deposit for a few months while it's all going through, but it suddently occured to me while merrily opening a new joint account and a new ISA the other day...would a bank do a credit check on someone opening a new savings account? Obviously we don't want loads of searches on our credit files at the same time as applying for a mortgage and I'm a bit worried now

I want to open the savings account at A+L and I am already an existing customer - will they do a check on me, given that it's only a savings account and they already have my details etc?

Any help/advice appreciated! Thankyou very much (as an aside - I also want to apply for that new Egg cashback credit card, would I be better advised to wait until we have our mortgage offer before doing that too?) x

Mrs_Bumble

I haven't heard of any banks credit checking for a savings account but in the current market I would ask A&L to be sure!

I personally would wait for the mortgage offer to come through. Have you had many searches on you recently could that affect your application with Egg, I hastily add I have no knowledge of their application process, just a thought that came into my head! lol!

glitterjunkie

Mrs_Bumble wrote: »

I haven't heard of any banks credit checking for a savings account but in the current market I would ask A&L to be sure!

I personally would wait for the mortgage offer to come through. Have you had many searches on you recently could that affect your application with Egg, I hastily add I have no knowledge of their application process, just a thought that came into my head! lol!

Thanks Mrs Bumble I didn't think they'd do a search with it being a savings account, but I wasn't sure! Think I'll phone them and ask before I open it, just to make double sure.

I've had three searches in the last 6 months - one declined mortgage application with Halifax, another mortgage application with Beacon (who we now have an agreement in principle with, so fingers crossed!), and my Alliance and Leicester current account back in February. Another search about 9 months ago for my staff store card at work. They didn't do a search for the joint account we opened last week, as we purposely asked for a basic bank account with no overdraft to avoid it. But am I right in thinking 3 in 6 months (or 4 in 9 months) is quite a lot? Best hold off until we've got the mortgage for the Egg card then - it's a shame really, as we've got loads of big things to pay out over the next few months and it'd be nice to get some cashback on them, but it's not worth risking the mortgage is it!

telecomengineer

Hi Guys

The banks normally just do a "soft search" when opening savings accounts e.g Electoral Roll and Public records to comply with money laundering rules - therefore it shouldn't affect a credit decision as these "soft searches" are seen by a lender but not taken into account

Abbey done a soft search on my equifax report recently when I opened an e-saver

Hope this helps - you could always ask the lender in question when opening the ISA