Best Bank Account article discussion

obsessed_saver

Yikes! I'm switching from Cahoot being tempted by the high interest rate. Hope it goes alright for me. I ask very little from my bank. Just pay my DD and standing orders and do payments to friends/other accounts once in a while.

jmf76

I did the Halifax offer a couple of months ago and they weren't great at the switching process. They did omit a few DD & SOs - fortunately I was checking every day and spoke to the companies where it hadn't swapped over directly and got these changed myself before having to pay out any monies fine-wise for late payments - obviously this is more of a hassle.

Saying that I have applied for a BoS account although wont be the switching process (can't get the £100 reward as I already have the Halifax acct)

rachelz

hi, my husband is a moroccan national (we have been in england since end feb 2006) and is currently doing temp work while looking for a permanent position and wants to open a bank account. will his nationality/lack of permanent income affect his chances of opening an account? which banks would anyone recommend?

TomJ

Personally I have an A&L Premier Direct account on which they matched my previous bank's o/d limit. The money from this overdraft is sitting in an Halifax HI acct; anything above 2.5k gets transfereed to a Coventry First acct, including the £100 switching bonus Halifax recently paid me.

Had I been smarter and not had an acct with A&L recently, I would have opened a Premier Account and got the 12% Premier Saver regular savings account. Once the overdraft had been set up I'd have opened a Premier Direct and put the overdraft money in there at 6.5%, with anything above 2.5K going to the Halifax acct. Luckily my employer's payroll system allows me to split my salary between different accts, meaning I don't have to do too much by way of transfers to meet the minimum payments on the various accts.

BTW, I tried to open the Halifax acct online, ran into some snags but a very helpful chap at the local Bank of Scotland branch sorted it all out for me, including getting my online banking set up, without any further trouble.

gt94sss2

rachelz wrote: »

hi, my husband is a moroccan national (we have been in england since end feb 2006) and is currently doing temp work while looking for a permanent position and wants to open a bank account. will his nationality/lack of permanent income affect his chances of opening an account? which banks would anyone recommend?

Assuming you already have a bank account, you could try your bank and/or open a joint account with your husband.

Alternatively, your husband could try opening a 'normal' current account in his own name.

If he has problems doing that, he could try a Basic Bank Account or a HSBC Passport account

Regards
Sunil

patway

Not sure if I am in correct box so to speak.
Its driving me mad, I read somewhere on internet, heard on BBC prog a few weeks ago about a bank that helps if you have lost or had your card stolen you can ring up and they will give you a new pin to enable you to still draw money from the ATM. Anyone please help? Patway

Tomji

I have a Lloyds classic plus account and I am very happy with it. Stays 1% below base interest rate, and as someone already mentioned, up to 5000£.

Additionally you can get a 8% monthly saver account (max deposit monthly £250, 1 year runtime)

sharon1953

I've just been slapped with a £50.00 charge for having my overdraft renewed on my business account. The letter informing me of this, has not yet arrived, so they took it without any notice. I am now awaiting a phone to tell me how they justify £50.00 for doing nothing. Do the best buys on here apply to business accounts or just personal ones. If just personal, how can I find out which bank to switch to for a small, unlimited business?

koru

Martin arguably undersells Coventry First, for those who have an average balance of more than £2,500.

First, the rate increased to 6.1% from 1 June (which no doubt Martin will update this week). As it pays this rate on any balance (maximum investment is £250,000), you are almost certainly going to earn more with this account than the others recommended, unless your balance always stays below £2,500. You will quite possibly earn enough extra that you offset the £100 incentive from BOS (same basis as calculation below).

Second, even when the rate falls by 0.85% to 5.25%, after a year, you will be better off with this account if your balance goes much above £2,500. For instance, if you have an average balance of £5,000, with Coventry you will earn £262.5 per year. The other two recommendations pay 6.17% and 6.5% on the first £2,500, and 0.1% on the next £2,500, so you only earn £156.75 or £165. Thus, in the second year, you will be better off with Coventry than the BOS account if your average balance is more than £2,939.

Third, you don't need to earn £50,000, nor do you have to pay in your salary. You do have to pay in £1000 per month. If this was salary, it would require a salary of about £15,000. Or it could be any other source of cash. You could even just transfer the £1000 out and back in again once a month (the £1000 can come from any source, except another Coventry account). However, if your monthly income is less than £1000, you probably have an average balance of less than £2,500, so it probably isn't worth using this trick as you would be better with Martin's recommendations.

Fourth, the rate doesn't necessarily drop by 0.85% at the end of the first year. Balances of more than £10,000 earn 5.77%, which is still a pretty good rate, even for a savings account.

************

One drawback is that there is no chequebook, but you can use another account for this, if you need it. (Maybe Martin's BOS recommendation?)

rock_chick_3

I.ve checked for the best interest rate on saving bonds and the top one for adults (Not pensioners) is 'Anglo Irish Corporation'.
Minimum £500.00 for 1 year at 6.45%
Can anyone surgest a better deal?

Rock Chick:p :hello: