Edinburgher gets cracking!

edinburgher

Who do you use for your current account now, are you very happy with them?

I have 2: FD and Halifax. I know that Halifax/BOS don't get good ratings for customer service, but their internet banking is far superior to FD and pays me £5/mth. Their branch service is fine and I never typically speak to anyone beyond paying in a cheque.

We're in a similar position to yourself - just finished spending £2.5k on driving lessons, time to save up for our next big project and *bam* - no longer anywhere to save :eek:

I'd say Lloyds vantage (my wife's account) would be our next stop, but it's starting to feel pretty exhausting having to resort to money hacks just to get a passable rate on whatever we work hard not to spend!

The most likely outcome of this will be doubling our payments to the S&S ISA and putting in place a larger, more regular OP. Remaining cash can go in whichever ISA sucks the least next year

HelenDaveKids

Bless you Ed, sounds like learning to drive is very expensive. I live in a village and was very keen to drive as terrible bus service and taxis very expensive due to distance to nearest decent town/city. So first lesson was at 17 and my parents paid for my first 10 as my birthday present and I paid the rest. Did take 2 attempts to pass though.

I pay out £200 a month of music lessons (for dd1,2&3) and its like having an extra morgage. Theres times when its been a real struggle but Im hoping they'llappreciate when they are older.

edinburgher

£630.50 out on driving lessons and I am so glad Mrs E gets paid on Friday. As we have a joint account/get the same amount of fun money, whoever gets paid first helps to shorten the wait for both of us

I am feeling a bit baffled with savings, OPs and the whole financial world at the moment and am trying to figure out what direction to travel next. New targets and plans are required and I think I'm just about decided on what to do.

If I cheekily appropriate the money from our stooze, it means we have a fully paid up Emergency Fund locked into a market leading ISA, with 14 mths to pay off the 0% stooze. This might sound a little nuts, but I can only see interest rates on savings getting worse :eek:

I currently feel that I can't be bothered with stoozes, cashback credit cards and all the planning that goes with them. I think my best bet is probably to open a current Account to Santander, switch everything to it but leave my Halifax current account open and close my cashback credit card as soon as it pays me my £100.

So, back to one current account, one credit card and less crazy schemes?

I feel I've been here before

lulabelle1

I know what you mean.... I'm always changing my mind about what to do for the best too.....

I don't mind a bit of spend on a cash back credit card but I don't think I could be bothered with the whole stoozing thing. I don't think I could be bothered to open extra accounts with diff banks and have money firing off all over the place for an extra fiver either, although I guess that's me being lazy as every little helps and it all adds up.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

edinburgher

Thanks Lulabelle.

I can just about be bothered with the Halifax fiver as it takes literally two faster payments to 'earn'

Other than that, meh, feeling at a low ebb when it comes to schemes.

gallygirl

I'm a bit like you Ed, and really feel I need to open a Santander current account and forget about faffing about, apart from Halifax (have you got 2 DD's set up there though?)

edinburgher

gallygirl wrote: »

I'm a bit like you Ed, and really feel I need to open a Santander current account and forget about faffing about, apart from Halifax (have you got 2 DD's set up there though?)

I don't but they still seem to be paying the reward?

I do pay in £1k a month to keep things ticking over.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Mr E I think Halif@x changes in May, with two DDs and £750 rather than £1k

Tilly x

edinburgher

Thanks Tilly.

I have moved back my S&S ISA direct debit (and increased my monthly payment to £100 ) and I have moved my utilities direct debit back as well. Don't actually have all that many DDs - another half dozen and I'll be done.

Silly FD, not giving me an awesome interest rate

mamamags

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Mr E I think Halif@x changes in May, with two DDs and £750 rather than £1k

Tilly x

Tilly is right - I had a letter informing me the changes would happen in May so i went into the branch today and moved 2 D/Ds from another BOS account into my reward one - well a free £5 is a free £5!!
Good luck with your MFW journey. I am trying to read and learn from everyone elses diaries.