Splitting money between two accounts?

redrabbit29

Hey guys,

I'm trying to budget as I'm struggling a lot with money. I have a HSBC account that I use for everything. My pay goes in there, I have loads of direct debits, and I use my cash card to get cash out.

I also have a nationwide savings account that is for savings only.

My problem is I can't track my money, as if I look online at my statement, I just see loads of withdrawls, rent, gas bill, cash out, petrol switch payment, etc...

My question is:

1. Is it a good idea to split your finances. So maybe you have account A where your salary goes to, and your gas bill, rent, and the direct debits come out of

2. How exactly do you organise your accounts. What do you have in what, and what do you use for everyday money.

3. What procedure is there for changing all your direct debits, and making sure that nothing is broken when swapping things over.

4. I am with HSBC, can you recommed another current account that I could use if I were to open a new account. It MUST have a good online banking facility.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate/need the help!

Rafter

Might be easier to keep all your direct debits etc in the HSBC account with a overdraft buffer and then transfer your 'spending money to another account or use something like the egg money card.

You could use an 'account aggregator' so you can see all your accounts (including credit cards) to see how much your net worth is changing.

If your struggling with money (ie you have balances on store or credit cards) you should really think about paying these off rather than having savings earning a smaller rate of interest.

Post back with more details of why you are struggling, what you are trying to achieve and I'm sure someone will have some bright ideas.

Spliting your accounts may not be the best route if it complicates things further or means you end up incurring additional bank charges.

R.

spamberler

I have simply have a 'house account' with A&L that has all my bills on DD and send an amount to my other account (RBS) for spends each month (Food,Drink,Petrol etc.) however it does take a while to transfer. To get around that you could just draw out and pay in as cash or have another account with the same bank.

redrabbit29

I have a £1750 interest free overdraft with my bank (HSBC) as it is a graduate account. My balance drops to about minus £1200 at the end of the month before pay day. After all my ESSENTIAL expenses ar etaken, I have about £150 spare money that I can use whatever way I want.

techno_geek

Microsoft Money is a useful tool which helps you keep track of your finances - you can pick up the latest version (2005) quite cheaply from Amazon, etc.

You can use it to categorise income and expenditure so you can easily keep an eye on where your money is going - I swear by it!

morg_monster

I keep track of everything (and I mean every little thing) I spend in a notebook, and transfer it to an Excel spreadsheet, dividing things into categories to see how much I'm spending (including direct debits and bills etc). I use this to calculate how much of my pay I have left at any time.

This way, it doesn't matter that I look at my online statement and just see "£30-cash" all the way down the page interspersed with direct debits, because I know exactly what my money has gone towards this month. This spending record is also excellent at keeping me spending less - when you're writing "50p-coke", "£1.50-coffee" every day you soon see how you can cut down on non-essential spending.

I would hold off on changing bank accounts until you have got your head above water and organised your accounts. You may not find anywhere which will match a £1750 overdraft. Once you get to £1000, you should be able to move somewhere who will give you the same o/d with less interest than HSBC.

The Egg Money idea is a good one, again the online facility is excellent, it divides your spending up for you! Not quite as useful as your own records but still good to look at. Also you get 1% cashback on everything you spend, but it is a credit card, so don't use it for cash. Also you can use the Egg Money Manager which is an account aggregator as someone said above, you enter in the passwords etc to all your internet banking, and then when you log into Egg, it retrieves the balances from all of them, sweet.

But first of all, start a spending diary and find out where your money is going, I really think this is the most important thing for you because like you said the bank balance can be misleading. This should help you feel more in control!