Which account would you recommend?

Mrs_Arkwright

Hello

Mr A currently has an account with Halifax, which he uses for his own personal spending, and pays in cheques to it when he sells personal bits and bobs on Ebay.

He currently has a balance of over £1000, and the account has been run in this amount of credit for at least 10 months.

He only has a basic Electron card on the account. In January he asked them to change it to a proper Switch/Maestro type card, as sometimes when he wants to buy things on the internet, the Electron is not accepted. Anyway, they said no, we need to see that the account is being used regularly before we will change your card.

So we went in today, after having 10 months of regular use of the account, and they have again refused to give him a Switch card, saying it's because he doesn't have enough direct debits going out of the account (there is 3 currently going out of it), and because there is no 'regular' payments in (even though he regularly pays his Ebay money into it). He doesn't want to borrow any money from them, simply wants to spend his own money from his account!

Can anyone recommend an account that he can get that will let him have a Switch card, without having to have loads of DDs going out of the same account?

virgin_moneysaver

I would have thought that by 'regular' money they mean a salary, sporadic chqs don't count. a lot of the banks/b soc only issue a maestro card against an account that has a salary, pension or other regular bacs payment going in - can your hubby not apply to the bank that has his salary account as this would be more likely to be accepted

mrs_deadline

Wonder why they are being so obtuse. Personally I think it shows how little confidence they have in their own systems, considering he's not even asking for an overdraft.

If they won't budge, maybe he could just get a credit card from somewhere different, and set up a regular payment from the Halifax account to clear the full balance each month?

Mrs_Arkwright

virgin_moneysaver wrote:

I would have thought that by 'regular' money they mean a salary, sporadic chqs don't count. a lot of the banks/b soc only issue a maestro card against an account that has a salary, pension or other regular bacs payment going in - can your hubby not apply to the bank that has his salary account as this would be more likely to be accepted

His salary goes in our joint account, for which he has a card, but he wants a debit card to spend money from his own account - his 'pocket money' account, if you like!

Mrs_Arkwright

mrs_deadline wrote:

Wonder why they are being so obtuse. Personally I think it shows how little confidence they have in their own systems, considering he's not even asking for an overdraft.

If they won't budge, maybe he could just get a credit card from somewhere different, and set up a regular payment from the Halifax account to clear the full balance each month?

I suppose that is an option - he would prefer a debit card to a credit card to be honest though, but as you say he could pay off the balance in full each month. It's just a pain in the backside - all he wants to do is spend his money, not theirs!

Rafter

Mrs A,

Suggest he asks your joint bank account provider to open a single name account too. They will have loads of account history on which to base their decision.

It may also be worth trying nationwide flex too. This account has the added benefit of being the very best for overseas use if you ever go on holiday!

Good luck.

R.

Mrs_Arkwright

Rafter wrote:

Mrs A,

Suggest he asks your joint bank account provider to open a single name account too. They will have loads of account history on which to base their decision.

It may also be worth trying nationwide flex too. This account has the added benefit of being the very best for overseas use if you ever go on holiday!

Good luck.

R.

Thanks - I don't know if that will be an option though, as our main joint account is a One Account, with our mortgage all in etc, so not a regular current account. But I'll have a look at Nationwide. Thanks