Best "General" Bank Account

warmhands.coldheart

Sorry, just being lazy, but as the banks keep changing their "terms & conditions" on what seems a monthly basis, I'm hoping someone else has already done thier homework and could share their results.

I've a number of "standard" (if there is such a athing) Bank accounts with Halifax. who now have come up with the great idea of charging £1/day for arranged overdrafts & £2/day for unarranged overdrafts. Not so much worried about the Unarranged but do the odd time slip into Arranged overdraft... £1/Day what a rip off. So looking to change Bank accounts.

Anybody any idea of the best "General" day to day bank account(s) I could choose from???? I have an old Barclays Account still open with about £2 in it... how do people find them now??? Have never had problems with them in the past but it was 10 years ago!!

D.A.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

cifpower

I recently opened a Northern Bank account and its fantastic. Much better than I thought it would be from a Norn Iron bank. I have the Personal Access account which is their basic account. It comes with a Maestro card (no cheque book or overdraft) and a brilliant online service.

jenheiffer

Thery're paying 0% interest on a positive balance now, though.

blueberrypie

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Sorry, just being lazy, but as the banks keep changing their "terms & conditions" on what seems a monthly basis, I'm hoping someone else has already done thier homework and could share their results.

It really depends on your needs. There's no one account that will be good for everyone (or even the majority). If you want good on-line banking, avoid A&L/Abbey and First Trust. Northern's on-line service is only marginally better. First Direct has good on-line banking and very good customer service, but is internet-based, so if you pay in cash, it's probably not the best choice. You need to look at how much you pay in, what kind of balance you maintain, what services you use, whether it's important to have a local branch, etc.

I've a number of "standard" (if there is such a athing) Bank accounts with Halifax. who now have come up with the great idea of charging £1/day for arranged overdrafts & £2/day for unarranged overdrafts. Not so much worried about the Unarranged but do the odd time slip into Arranged overdraft... £1/Day what a rip off. So looking to change Bank accounts.

If you only slip into the overdraft occasionally, then change your Halifax accounts to Reward accounts - if you do it before November 1st, you can have up to three of them. If you fund a Reward account with £1000 in any month, you'll get £5 credited to your account at the end of the next month. In effect, if you're overdrawn for five days each month, it's even (well, better than that really, because you won't be charged interest). The £1000 doesn't need to be in one go, and it doesn't need to sit there for any length of time. It sounds like you could work the Halifax changes in your favour.

Anybody any idea of the best "General" day to day bank account(s) I could choose from???? I have an old Barclays Account still open with about £2 in it... how do people find them now??? Have never had problems with them in the past but it was 10 years ago!!

Barclays seems good in some respects, but I have to say that that stupid card-reader for on-line banking - the Pin Sentry - puts me off completely. I wouldn't ever start using my Barclays account as my main account for that reason.

warmhands.coldheart

D.A. wrote: »

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

Thanks D.A. but only problem is that all the "Best" accounts are those that Bluebeerypie say have Cr*p Internet banking (i.e. A&L/Abbey and First Direct doesn't have Branches) so a bit of a problem there...... The upgrading of the account to a Reward account is a possibility but I pay in Just under £1000/month so wouldn't qualify for the £5 payment (I've a load of Benifits like Childcare vouchers, sharesave schemes etc... come off my salary prior to going into my bank so ends up less than £1000)... Bummer!!

blueberrypie

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Thanks D.A. but only problem is that all the "Best" accounts are those that Bluebeerypie say have Cr*p Internet banking (i.e. A&L/Abbey and First Direct doesn't have Branches) so a bit of a problem there...... The upgrading of the account to a Reward account is a possibility but I pay in Just under £1000/month so wouldn't qualify for the £5 payment (I've a load of Benifits like Childcare vouchers, sharesave schemes etc... come off my salary prior to going into my bank so ends up less than £1000)... Bummer!!

You don't need an income of £1000 to qualify for the £5 reward payment with Halifax - the deposit doesn't need to be all in one lump sum. You could transfer funds out of the account and back in again; as long as all the deposits in the month total £1000, you'll get the £5. (And even if they don't, there's no fee for under-funding.)

There's also no requirement that the funding is from a non-Halifax source, so you could even be switching the money between two or more Halifax accounts (unlike the High-Interest Current Account, which I believe had to be funded from an external source). In other words:
£900 into Halifax Reward account from salary
transfer £200 into another account (Halifax or elsewhere)
transfer £200 back to Halifax Reward account

Total deposits: £1100 - fiver earned.

Or even, with three Reward accounts, transfer £500 through the three accounts, then do it again (less than five minutes on-line), and you'd get £5 reward into each of the three accounts at the beginning of the next month...

warmhands.coldheart

blueberrypie wrote: »

You don't need an income of £1000 to qualify for the £5 reward payment with Halifax - the deposit doesn't need to be all in one lump sum. You could transfer funds out of the account and back in again; as long as all the deposits in the month total £1000, you'll get the £5. (And even if they don't, there's no fee for under-funding.)

There's also no requirement that the funding is from a non-Halifax source, so you could even be switching the money between two or more Halifax accounts (unlike the High-Interest Current Account, which I believe had to be funded from an external source). In other words:
£900 into Halifax Reward account from salary
transfer £200 into another account (Halifax or elsewhere)
transfer £200 back to Halifax Reward account

Total deposits: £1100 - fiver earned.

Or even, with three Reward accounts, transfer £500 through the three accounts, then do it again (less than five minutes on-line), and you'd get £5 reward into each of the three accounts at the beginning of the next month...

thanks Blueberrypie. Nice one.. Hadn't thought of that !! You've obviously thought this through well....

36square

Much as I hate to admit it, Ulster Bank's basic, no-frills account is worth considering. I have one as a secondary current account and I am impressed particularly by its faster (ie same day) payments service. Amost every payment is processed this way whereas this is rarely the case with my main account (HBOS).
I think Ulster's online banking service is pretty good as well.
The banks to avoid at all costs are the Irish-owned ones (BoI and First Trust): they can't seem to get away from their tradition of charging customers for anything that moves.

seatzie

have to say A&L online banking I've found to be excellent over the years, different story when you want to speak to anyone, but thats been few and far between - you can pay cash/cheques in at the post office as well

blueberrypie

36square wrote: »

Much as I hate to admit it, Ulster Bank's basic, no-frills account is worth considering. I have one as a secondary current account and I am impressed particularly by its faster (ie same day) payments service. Amost every payment is processed this way whereas this is rarely the case with my main account (HBOS).

Really? My Halifax accounts have been very good with FP - it doesn't *always* work, but I don't think any of the banks could claim that - and with Halifax (and I assume HBOS is on the same system) they tell you before the payment goes whether it will be FP or not - so you can cancel it if not.