Opening Coventry/A&L/Lloyds current accounts - my blog

MattyNeth

Hi - As a First Direct current account holder of 10 years the recent "false" talk of them imposing a £10 a month fee got me thinking about current accounts and looking around for the best deals.

I decided to do something with my savings and set up the following current accounts:

Coventry Building Society - current/savings account paying 5.35% for the first year. Salary to be paid in here with all my direct debits. All my savings from ING to be "ring fenced" in here too for the year

Lloyds Classic Account - opening with £1 and then opening the 2 year 8% regular saver

Alliance & Leicester Premier Account - paying just 1.5%, and funding with £500 a month to take advantage of the 12% linked regular saver. £250 of the £500 to go on the regular saver, and the other £250 to be taken out to put in Lloyds for that 8% regular saver. Also considering taking the whole £1000 free overdraft and banking that for the year :-)

Here's my experiences of opening these three current accounts. My First Direct account will remain open with £1 in it, and I'll review my situation in a years time.

MattyNeth

Tuesday 5th September - applied online for the Alliance & Leicester Premier Account. Option during the application process to open a regular saver and specify the date of first standing order (I selected 20th September hoping to get the 20th September as my first payment). Process very easy to follow, just took a few minutes. Received an email about 90 seconds later saying a decision would be made in the next 24hrs. Received a second email 3 minutes later saying I had been accepted and they were in the process of setting my account up.

Wednesday 5th September - applied online for the Lloyds Classic Account. Again very smooth online application, again taking just a few minutes.

Received letter from A&L asking for identification, which was sent back same day (passport and utility bill).

Thursday 6th September - received account opening pack from Lloyds giving me an account number and asking me to send back identification to enable account. Impressed

Requested some documentation for the Coventry First account

Friday 7th September - received passport and identification back from Alliance & Leicester. Also received requested documentation from the Coventry. Impressed on both fronts.

Saturday 8th September - applied online for the Coventry First account. Again, very smooth application process.

Went into the local Lloyds branch with my identification which they photocopied and certified with me there. They posted the documents to their current account opening centre.

Monday 10th September - received account opening pack from Alliance and Leicester together with two more letters with PIN codes.

Also received letter from Coventry requesting identification and supplying free post envelope to use

Tuesday 11th September - Call Alliance & Leicester as the pin codes relate to the same debit card. Advise that I also have not received the phone pin code. They say that one of the codes is for the phone and one for the debit card. Seems to be an error they say and cancel both pin codes and say they will send out new pin codes for both the debit card and phone. Not particularly impressed with A&L, and also they confirmed that my first regular saver payment would be 20th October and not the 20th September which I hoped.

Wednesday 12th - received passport and utility bill back from the Coventry. Received internet account number and cheque book from Alliance & Leicester. Just awaiting the internet pin, and my A&L account will be pretty much operational.

Nothing further from Coventry or Lloyds at present. Aside from the error on the pin codes, the A&L application process has easily been the quickest so far

MattyNeth

Thurs 13th - received A&L confirmation letter of regular saver payments (first one 20th Oct). Also received letter from Coventry saying they are processing my application and will write again shortly

M_Thomson

MattyNeth wrote:

Tuesday 5th September - applied online for the Alliance & Leicester Premier Account. Option during the application process to open a regular saver and specify the date of first standing order (I selected 20th September hoping to get the 20th September as my first payment). Process very easy to follow, just took a few minutes. Received an email about 90 seconds later saying a decision would be made in the next 24hrs. Received a second email 3 minutes later saying I had been accepted and they were in the process of setting my account up.

Wednesday 5th September - applied online for the Lloyds Classic Account. Again very smooth online application, again taking just a few minutes.

Received letter from A&L asking for identification, which was sent back same day (passport and utility bill).

Thursday 6th September - received account opening pack from Lloyds giving me an account number and asking me to send back identification to enable account. Impressed

Requested some documentation for the Coventry First account

Friday 7th September - received passport and identification back from Alliance & Leicester. Also received requested documentation from the Coventry. Impressed on both fronts.

Saturday 8th September - applied online for the Coventry First account. Again, very smooth application process.

Went into the local Lloyds branch with my identification which they photocopied and certified with me there. They posted the documents to their current account opening centre.

Monday 10th September - received account opening pack from Alliance and Leicester together with two more letters with PIN codes.

Also received letter from Coventry requesting identification and supplying free post envelope to use

Tuesday 11th September - Call Alliance & Leicester as the pin codes relate to the same debit card. Advise that I also have not received the phone pin code. They say that one of the codes is for the phone and one for the debit card. Seems to be an error they say and cancel both pin codes and say they will send out new pin codes for both the debit card and phone. Not particularly impressed with A&L, and also they confirmed that my first regular saver payment would be 20th October and not the 20th September which I hoped.

Wednesday 12th - received passport and utility bill back from the Coventry. Received internet account number and cheque book from Alliance & Leicester. Just awaiting the internet pin, and my A&L account will be pretty much operational.

Nothing further from Coventry or Lloyds at present. Aside from the error on the pin codes, the A&L application process has easily been the quickest so far

Just wanted to mention, I think you are very brave sending your passport through the post!

Dan29

I have the same accounts as you, apart from the Lloyds Classic which is part of my future regular saver plans.

I assume you know you can get £90 through the A&L Refer a Friend offer (unless you opened the account via Quidco or other cashback site)?

MattyNeth

Dan - yes, taking advantage of that £90 offer as well :-)

15th September - Received A&L debit card, internet pin numbers, my phone pin and debit pin. Logged onto internet banking and account all operation. Well done A&L. Just 10 days from applying to having the account set up :-)

Also received a signature mandate form for the Lloyds account, and they apologised for the inconvience.

Notice that Coventry cashed my opening cheque yesterday of £500, but not heard anything else from them.....

MattyNeth

16th Sept - Security mandate received from Coventry, asking me to send back with passwords etc....

Already cashed my first cheque with A&L

BASFORDLAD

i am impressed with the coventry, ive been with them for years, decent range of products good service and as i used to live in coventry i decided to open my first proper savings account with them. proberly wont open a current acount with them at the moment, but its a good offer. i didnt even think they would offer a current account

ED

BASFORDLAD – I too have for many years been impressed with facilities offered by Coventry Bdg Soc. For the past year or so I've been slightly disappointed at lack of bond or other account offering a great rate for young/middle-aged adults, whereas slightly older customers are well catered for.

Coventry First account @ 5.35% AER is excellent. I too was taken by surprise earlier this year at the Society launching this hybrid savings and current account. They put Nationwide BS to shame, I feel, with quality of service, interest rate, responsiveness to online messages within hours (2–24 at the very most) compared with Nationwide's 3-days+, even re serious problems.

Lack of a cheque book facility with the Coventry First a/c is no problem, I find, as up to £500 can be withdrawn daily via ATM. This can be deposited into a high street account from which cheque(s) can be written by me.

MattyNeth – well done, your whole scenario gets my vote.

MattyNeth

Well nothing yesterday or today from Lloyds or Coventry.

The A&L account is all up and running, and my 0% interest free overdraft of £1000 is now in my ING account earning me a few pennies :-)

BASFORDLAD

Ed , they did have a good last year which i opened, was a decent rate, but they do seem to be aiming at young families/retired people now