Recent Graduate Account

a_lo

Hi Guys,

Basically I've just graduated and I'm probably one of the very lucky few to neither be in my overdraft but also having secured a job paying in 1000+ per month.

I've been with Halifax with either a child savings account or a young persons account for years but now I'm obviously looking to swap from my current student account. Considering Halifax have now on two occasions, one through their mistake and one without reason ("account review"), dropped my credit limit to £100, brand loyalty is of no concern to me (I have a healthy ISA there too).

I've considered looking at the "premium" accounts, benefits I'm looking for are really mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover. From what I gather, most of my friends are paying around £5 a month just for mobile insurance so any account costing around £5-£7 should in theory, be decent value for money. Am I barking up the wrong tree or would I be better off going for a bog standard account?

jjlandlord

I'd go for a standard, free account.
Imo, you need some pretty special circumstances for a mobile phone insurance to be worthwhile...

rosmersholm

As far as package accounts go - I like my smilemore account with smile (co-op). Its pretty steep (£13 pm) but I have rationalised that this saves me money on OD rates (which won't be applicable to you - as you are in credit). It has Worldwide Travel Insurance, Breakdown Cover, Mobile Phone Insurance and then bundles you can add on like "Travel" which gives you four free airport lounge access options. It makes sense for me "now" whilst in OD but there is plenty in the bundle to keep me going when I am back in credit regularly.

jjlandlord

rosmersholm wrote: »

As far as package accounts go - I like my smilemore account with smile (co-op). Its pretty steep (£13 pm) but I have rationalised that this saves me money on OD rates (which won't be applicable to you - as you are in credit). It has Worldwide Travel Insurance, Breakdown Cover, Mobile Phone Insurance and then bundles you can add on like "Travel" which gives you four free airport lounge access options. It makes sense for me "now" whilst in OD but there is plenty in the bundle to keep me going when I am back in credit regularly.

£13 pcm = £156 pa.
Obviously they bundle plenty of bonuses for you to think it's good to keep. But you should work out how much of these bonuese you're likely to use and how much they would cost otherwise.

e.g. a regular breakdown cover can be worth £20-40 pa. and to have a use for a "worldwide travel insurance" you would need to travel abroad on a regular basis.

rosmersholm

I am generally not a fan of package accounts at all - but the difference in the APR on the overdraft hooked me because it worked out cheaper to have the package account than the normal account when the OD rates differed from 18.9% APR and 11.9% APR. So it was like having a package account for like £4 a month instead of £13. Individually I worked out that the benefits are pretty much around the 160 mark anyway (with the travel package lounge access @ £15 per visit).

Choosing ID insurance or the other bundle may make out a worse deal - but the particular configuration I opted for makes it worthwhile.

a_lo

So far after having looked at all the big banks, Lloyds Silver Account (£7.95) appears the best suited out of the package accounts. However, Halifax's ultimate reward current account, although £12.50 a month has a £5 reward if you pay over £1000 per month. Thus bringing it down to £7.50. Both offer the mobile insurance and breakdown cover I'm mainly interested in. Might make an appointment at Halifax when I get back home to see what they can arrange and if they can sort out the CC situation.

Not particularly interested in OD rates, based on my situation I shouldn't need it atm. In reality, it's more about the interest rate on credit balances, but I guess I'll just fill up the remainder of my ISA allowance first.

DrSyn

From all of the articals I have read, unless you need all the extras these fee paying accounts provide, they are likely to be a waist of money. Use a free account and buy any insurance you need!

Example: £12 x 12 months = £144 per year.

Have you looked to see
1. How much a stand alone policy cost?
2. If it is already covered by any insurance you may already have. Say contents insurance for instance?
3. Just what the exclusions clauses on the policy from the bank actually are. These are most important as they will provide the excuses for not paying you, should you have to claim.