Changing current accounts - is it really worth the hassle any advice?

themaccas

Hi we are thinking about changing our current account as we are utterly fed up with the Halifax who we have been with for about 15 years. We have all our accounts with them - current (2), savings, mortgage, endowment, personal loan, our children also have their accounts with them too but we are fed up with their inept service and attitude most recently they lost 2 cheques on 2 different occasions one of which we had paid into current accounts using the cheque drop service and the other when we deposited a birthday gift cheque when we opened a new savings account for our son.
The one thing that worries me slightly is the fact it does look good on your credit record when you have been with the same bank and there is a lot of hassle when you change. On top of that which is the best bank account to change to? The Lloyds TSB looks good but what about the internet accounts - First Direct, Cahoot, Smile. What are peoples experiences of these? I would really appreciate any advice
Many thanks

Dazza.mk_2

It normally isn't a big problem to sswitch, all banks offer some kind of switching service to move DD's and SO's and a large number offer additional overdrafts etc for the switching process.

Personally I'm in the process of switching to A&L partially due to the recommend a friend bonus but also due to the high interest rate on the current account - but First Direct's internet bank beats A&L hands down!

Dazza.mk_2

Also if you check your credit reference report:- vaste majority of current account details aren't released to credit reference agencies so probably the details (above) are only available to the Halifax, and if they are realeased they would only cover a rolling 6 year history,

themaccas

Thanks Dazza, I'll have a look at the A& L one.

grumbler

Don't switch. Open a new account and keep the old one (with £1 if you don't want to use it).

Quiet_Life

I switched from Abbey to the Coop ( ethical reasons), but they don'y have a free overdraft facility, so I moved to Smile about 1 yr ago, must put 1,000.00 minimum into current account each month to use free overdreft facility. I'm very happy with this account.
You can use all the usual ATMs and also your local post office to withdraw cash, so far so good

Voyager2002

Do switch: you should not have to live with bad service, and it is not acceptable for your bank to lose your cheques.

If you lead a reasonably complicated financial life (with salaries going in, several direct debits and so on) then it is worth using a switching service offered by the new bank. Otherwise switching will involve a certain amount of trouble, and if you make little mistakes they could cost you dearly.

From personal experience, I can recommend Smile and to a lesser extent First Direct. (However contacting Smile by telephone can be frustrating, whereas First Direct offer very good telephone banking.) My sister is also very happy with the quality of service offered by Cahoot. Do not go near the other banks mentioned above: they may offer good terms and favourable interest rates, but are likely to make too many mistakes. In particular, Alliance and Leicester are just not reliable: I have used them for just four months and in that time they have made two serious mistakes (they have just managed to lose 3,000 pounds of my money!). Alliance and Leicester offer a good place to leave spare cash and receive a high rate of interest, but are not up to running a current account.

tomstickland

I've switched recently and it's worth it. Shop around for the best current account (eg: A&L are paying 5% on current account balances up to £2500 with the prem direct account), best savings account (HiSave paying 5.15% for example), best ISA, best mortgage etc. With online banking and some simlpe record keeping then it's easy to manage all of this, so don't be tied to the "all with one bank for simplicity" argument.

maforduk

With the A&L, you get the FREE Overdraft facility for only £500 per month to be put in.
I switched to them and so far, they have been flawless.

themaccas

Thanks everyone for your comments, it has been really good to hear of your experiences. I do like the look of First Direct and they offer £50 to switch too, I have had a look at the A & L website and I think it needs another read as there is a lot of bright info and its a bit bewildering. I'm going to also look at Smile too, I think the best of the highstreet banks is LloydsTSB and I do like the idea of being able to go into a highstreet branch of my bank to pay in cheques and see someone face to face when I need to.

maforduk

Alliance & Leicester are a High Street Branch!
You can also use them in the Post Office's.