Recommend me a new account please

bengarton

Hi

I recently moved to First Direct from Alliance & Leicester, however since they brought in their new charges have decided to move again.

I moved from Alliance & Leicester because I didn't like their customer service.

I am looking for an account with
a) a decent interest rate - i don't have an overdraft
b) good internet banking
c) good customer service

I have been looking at Halifax, as I have a joint account with them with my partner which we pay our bills out of. Are their cashback or high interest accounts any good?

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Cypher

I also moved from A+L to First Direct when A+L introduced that horrible automated robot banking call centre

I've recently just moved from First Direct to Nationwide, and I'm not impressed at all with Nationwide so I'm now looking at moving again, I'm now concidering Smile.

If I were you as you already have the joint account at Halifax I would probably move there. Transfers between your main account and the joint one should then be instant, so you won't be messing about moving money between banks.

techno_geek

As a student, I'm trying to open accounts with all the major banks (not just student accounts, normal current accounts) because I want to get a feel for the service offered.

I'm particularly interested in who gives the best savings rates, and who offers the best online banking and telephone services. For me, it's all about weighing up the services against the rates and seeing which bank(s) and building societies come out on top.

This way, after I graduate I'll know which treat me best - and I'll have an existing relationship to build on.


Getting back to the point in hand, I've never had any major gripes with FD or Nationwide and by far I prefer them to NatWest or HSBC. Smile seem OK, but I think with First Direct you get much better services.

bengarton

Thanks for the replies guys. I would be really interested to hear from anyone who has had the halifax cashback account.