Please give your feedback on personal current accounts

claremc1

rb10 wrote: »

That's obvious, really. The current account is poor when compared to others; the monthly fee that you are paying is subsidising the extra interest on your savings accounts. It's give with one hand, but take back with the other.

The HSBC Premier account does not charge a monthly fee so this is irrelevant.

Ignatius_A

This is what i'd like to see from a bank account:

My current account pays my regular bills by dd/so. Until i started paying closer attention to this, i received a number of charges (My problem, agreed, but...)

I also have several hundred pounds in a savings account with the same bank.

I'd like to see banks manage ALL my accounts as if they were one balance - so that if my current account is overdrawn by £5, but there's £5000 in my savings account, this should not indicate that i'm making use of my overdraft.

I'd have no issue with losing the savings account interest on that £5 which is covering the current account negative balance. After all, the current account may be in the negative, but my overall business with the bank is definitely in the black.

That's the basic idea. What would be even better is if there was a bank which did the same thing, but allowed for the "piggybanking" technique - whereas I could have 1 current account and 10,20, or 30 (or more?) different savings account balances (christmas, fuel, holiday, dinner money, spending money, car repairs, house repairs, insurance(i pay anually to save money), Kids clubs, education). I'm sure you can add others. Each of these should maintain a separate balance, and all your separate balances should contribute to the overall balance

In this way it would be easier to use the "piggybanking" method. Only if your overall balance is in the red should that trigger an overdraft condition.

At present I run my savings accounts very much like this, except that I have to use 1 savings account (Halifax limit me to 5 web savers) and use a big spreadsheet to keep track of the balances & transactions on each account. Of course, the overall balance does not include my current account.

chipbeck

huw01 wrote: »

English people ? Well I guess that leaves us Welsh, Scots and Irish out of it as well ! :rotfl:

On the other hand, HSBC does have a Welsh Language Call Centre in Swansea and it's brilliant. I can speak to a person in Welsh and do all of my phonebaking through the medium of Welsh which is brilliant.

Another advantage of being Welsh - try contracting a Welsh speaking phonebanking service to the sub continent !

Any chance of one of those seaweed type bread things you guys are famous for?

suzakiroqq75

lower bank charges

simple clarification of when/what you get charged

abolish all charges is you are overdrawn less than what the charge would be

make it easier to get credit............. If i could get a loan from my bank for £10,000 it would reduce my outgoings by £600 per month. Unfortunately i have a credit rating lower than a snake's belly due to being divorced. I have explained my situation to the bank and taken documents in to prove my circumstances and how much better off i would be. They agreed with me but could not help because "computer says no!!!!!" what a swizz.

as a result myself and my family have to struggle by to make payments on everyday things like food shopping and paying bills.

mummyshaz

I think you should only be allowed to spend what is in your account. For example if you have £13 in your account then why can i use my debit card to spend £14 then get charged for it. Also my bank say its my responsibility to check what i have in but if i have used my debit card it doesnt show up on the cash machine so it looks like i have more in than i do. Also when you have been charged for something you should beable to say when it is ok for the charges to come out. My bank has fixed dates and no matter what they wont change that date even if you tell them there will be no money in then plus they charge you for it not coming out.

jambosans

suzakiroqq75 wrote: »

make it easier to get credit............. If i could get a loan from my bank for £10,000 it would reduce my outgoings by £600 per month.

If you can't manage to run your bank account without getting charged, then why on earth would the bank give you a £10000 loan? I'm assuming of course that you do get bank charges, otherwise this wouldn't be the first three things on your list for banks to change:-

suzakiroqq75 wrote: »

lower bank charges

simple clarification of when/what you get charged

abolish all charges is you are overdrawn less than what the charge would be

iereboy

Huw,

Lloyds got a welsh speaking centre in Swansea too! Awesome!

woodface7

The OFT should remind banks what Basic Accounts are for. The 'socially excluded' are unlikely to have 14 proofs of ID from work they don't have, bills they don't pay etc.

Yet the banks are still allowed to deny people an account - despite it offering no credit or overdraft - which excludes them further.

JuicyJesus

woodface7 wrote: »

The OFT should remind banks what Basic Accounts are for. The 'socially excluded' are unlikely to have 14 proofs of ID from work they don't have, bills they don't pay etc.

Yet the banks are still allowed to deny people an account - despite it offering no credit or overdraft - which excludes them further.

Banks are also obliged by the Financial Services Authority to take ID and address verification details in order to prevent fraud and money laundering. They are between a rock and a hard place; there is no safe and legal ID process which will exclude absolutely nobody.

typos1

jambosans wrote: »

If you can't manage to run your bank account without getting charged, then why on earth would the bank give you a £10000 loan? I'm assuming of course that you do get bank charges, otherwise this wouldn't be the first three things on your list for banks to change:-

Yes but it might not be their fault that they cant run their current account without being charged as the banks make it very difficult or impossible for you to keep track of your payments-ie cash machines dont show latest transactions or they allow card payments when you havent got the balance available or allow you to take money you havent got out of a cash machine, then charge you.

They set up a series of traps and then wait for you to fall in whilst rubbing thier hands together with glee, pound signs appearing in their eyes.

And then some people say "well you should run your account properly" when the fact is you cant because the system is set up so you cant but you still have to pay when you cant.

Its grossly unfair and unreasonable, nothing annoys me more..apart from maybe the people that say "run your account properly", most of whom clearly have the luxury of NOT having to work down to the last penny to survive... only to find out it wasnt the last penny-the system had allowed a payment through and now youre £1 overdrawn and you ve been charged £30 for it.

It should be no available balance=no money out, no payments made, no charge. Payment made or money transfered=instantaneous, whatever method used cheque included (well instantaneous soon as the bank gets it if cheque).

Anything else is not acceptable. The current situation is the banking equivalent of legitimising those cowboy builders who charge 5000 grand to change 4 tiles on an old person's roof. What is an outrageous con in the field of roofing suddenly becomes perfectly legitimate in the field of banking and it has got to stop.