Best "General" Bank Account

blueberrypie

seatzie wrote: »

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

I thought A&L's on-line banking was good until I experienced a few others. I think it probably was good a few years ago, but so many others are now so much better, while A&L is still stuck with the same system it's had for years, with no improvements. All the other banks I use have real-time on-line banking - A&L is the only one not able to show a transaction the same day it happens (or to transfer money between accounts on the same day, etc). I've been told that A&L was getting ready to roll out an improved service, but that was put on hold when Santander took them over - the age of the service shows.

cifpower

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!!

For First Direct you can use an HSBC branch to deposit cheques or cash

seatzie

A&L is being upgraded to the same as Abbey/Santander either later this year or early next but yes Blueberrypie I know the pain of not seeing a transaction same day on it lol!

southantrim3

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...

Me has a sneaking suspicion that blueberrypie works for Halifax. Am I just being cynical or what do others think?... (esp considering the rest of the reports re Halifax's new charges.)

blueberrypie

southantrim3 wrote: »

Me has a sneaking suspicion that blueberrypie works for Halifax. Am I just being cynical or what do others think?... (esp considering the rest of the reports re Halifax's new charges.)

Nope, I don't work for Halifax. I don't work for any financial institution, and never have (unless you count two days temping at the Merrill Lynch switchboard in Toronto, back in, erm, 1990ish).

Other than selling a house using Halifax Estate Agents in 2003 (and the service was *dire*), I've no connection with Halifax other than as a relatively new customer (opened Regular Savers for my kids less than a year ago, opened Reward accounts for myself a few months ago).

So there you are, full disclosure, and for once I'm completely innocent ;-)

blueberrypie

seatzie wrote: »

A&L is being upgraded to the same as Abbey/Santander either later this year or early next but yes Blueberrypie I know the pain of not seeing a transaction same day on it lol!

So is the Abbey offering now real-time? I do have an account with Abbey, but haven't used it in ages. Just logged into it and yes, I see it's changed, but there's only £1 in the account so I can't play with it much LOL. Are A&L going to be doing the same "can't use on-line banking unless you've a mobile phone for the passcode" thing that Abbey seem to be doing?

southantrim3

blueberrypie wrote: »

Nope, I don't work for Halifax. I don't work for any financial institution, and never have (unless you count two days temping at the Merrill Lynch switchboard in Toronto, back in, erm, 1990ish).

Other than selling a house using Halifax Estate Agents in 2003 (and the service was *dire*), I've no connection with Halifax other than as a relatively new customer (opened Regular Savers for my kids less than a year ago, opened Reward accounts for myself a few months ago).

So there you are, full disclosure, and for once I'm completely innocent ;-)

Fair enough - I stand corrected. It looked as if you were trying to oversell the product a bit too much - apologies. I have to agree with you on the Halifax EAs, they are dire!

36square

blueberrypie wrote: »

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.

It sounds as if you're getting a much better service. My account is with BoS but I assumed that all parts of the HBOS group would operate to the same standards. The excuse I get is that the receiving bank will not accept the faster payment.

jenheiffer

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).
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.

The Northern bank is just as bad.:mad: I get a mini-statement every couple of weeks from the Autobank because they now only issue a statement every 3 months. As the Autobank wasn't working I asked the girl to look up my account to see what the balance was. She said that even if she only printed out the balance, not an actual statement, there would be a charge. Another time they wouldn't print a list of my DDs and SOs, just (reluctantly) wrote them down on a piece of paper.

anotherginger

I would stay away from Ulster Bank if you like good customer service. I've finally started moving my money away from them after being a customer for nearly 20 years. I was getting fed up of the cheeky staff when I called the branch. Actually, maybe just make sure you don't choose University Road Branch, the rest of them might be fine!