A New Bank Account - Quite Specific?

flipdee

Hey everyone,
So I've worked my way through a few different banks over the past 6 or 7 years.
Not long finished my initial Co-op Privilege Premier "free" 1st year.

Pro's for Co-op Priv Prem.

No stupid fees when paying for foreign currency items on Android Market(Now Google Play)
And when using my debit card to pay for things abroad (withdrawing cash still carries a fee.)

£300 Fee Free Overdraft! (Say no more)

Post Office Account Access.

Mobile Phone, Worldwide Travel Insurance + Roadside Assistance.

Credit Report Monitoring + some other minor perks.


Con's against Co-Op Priv Prem.

I've got Roadside Assistance with my Car for another year.
(Not Co-ops fault of course)

Fee of £13 a month.

No online "realtime/available balance" - they have introduced balance requests by text message, however these cost me 10p per text and the service is not always available.

(pretty minor things)
Faster payments received to a co-op account have a 15 min delay showing up in the account.
Their PVC free debit card does not stand the pace, I'll be on to my 3rd one in the past 8 months, the magnetic strip seems to fade away if you even look at it.

Of course I could reduce my account to a privilege one at £9.50 pm instead.
I'd lose the roadside assistance which I don't need while keeping the credit report monitoring etc, however this also reduces the overdraft amount to £200

So what i'm wondering, is there a viable alternative to this?

Absolute must haves:
No dodgy foreign currency fees (apart from the usual cash withdrawal fee - sadly I wouldn't be eligible for the santander zero)

At least £200 (ideally £300+) overdraft - fee free or close to it.

Faster Payment support (I know it's pretty much the LAW now), But good old Bank of Ireland take at LEAST 1 working day + 1 (the max) to send money, and only if you make the transaction pre-4:30pm on a weekday (not a bank holiday either).
(They receive faster payments in seconds, the cheeky beggers!)

I quite enjoy first direct's (and co-op to be fair) "INSTANT (with time scale feedback)" and even Halifax now are pretty much delay free faster payments.

Realtime Available Balance (some lovely companies still like to charge your debit card without any forewarning ,parkmobile,co.uk, not to mention any names, so a statement balance doesn't cut it these days.)

I use a first direct as a joint bill payment account, however my co-op account is main wage receiver account and general spending (no direct debits).

The more I write, I think the co-op is probably the best option with the reduced monthly rate.
To do all of the above individually would most likely cost much more than £13 pm, never mind £9.50.

I thought I read somewhere that the dodgy foreign currency fees on debit cards had been outlawed, has that happened/filtered through to the likes of halifax/santander?

If anyone can make any sense of my ramblings, and if you have any suggestions I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance!
flipdee

labp04

Depending on how important drawing cash abroad is to you (certainly saves us a lot of cash) have you checked out MetroBank? For us, it was worth the trip from Lancashire to the South. Good luck.

flipdee

Hi labp04,
Thanks for your reply.
Sadly I'm over here in Northern Ireland, so it would be a little out of my way.
How does it work with metrobank and taking cash out abroad?
Cheers,
flipdee

Hazzanet

I have to say that I agree with your comments on the PVC free card. I get 12 months maximum out of one.

flipdee

Hi Hazzanet,
Ironic that the environmentally friendly option ends up using more material/postage/etc.
A bit like electric cars, great idea in theory (i really do love the theory) however the actual environmental cost to build the car nearly negates the benefit.
flipdee