Which Current Account is Best for me Barclays or Lloyds ?

Ryan101

A bit of advice needed. I have two current accounts, one with Lloyds which is the Premier Vantage (Yes I do make use of all the benefits) and the other a Barclays Cash Card account.

The Lloyds one I have 5k in and use it more for savings with no Direct Debits or anything, and anything that comes in to it I transfer to my Barclays account. I have held the Lloyds account since 2008 with no problems.

The Barclays account I have separate as I use it to pay all my Direct Debits and for day to day spending, but most times there is between £500 to £1k left in it and of course it makes no interest.

I am just wondering that between the two accounts which one is better to use, both have debit cards and even the Barclays one works everywhere such as on the train and at Pay at pump so I don’t think I would get any more features from the Lloyds account, although the Lloyds account does come with a cheque book I rarely use it these days, the card is also a £250 CGC but no one accepts these now.

Just wanting a bit of advice as to if I am doing the right thing by separating them or if Barclays is the best account between the two ?.

Many Thanks

InsideInsurance

Ultimately it is up to you and what you want to achieve and which benefits you are using.

You could upgrade to Barclays Premier Life which has similar benefits to the Lloyds TSB but possibly slightly better (it is 5* defaqto rating vs Lloyds 4*) which is £25 or £17.50 a month depending on your earnings

You could then either have a savings account separately & drop the Lloyds - you can get 3.15% AER if your willing to switch annually but up to £250,000 invested or 2.90% with up to £100,000 invested if you dont want to be bothered switching. Alternatively downgrade the Lloyds to classic + vantage so it is fee free

jen245

Your Barclays account is a basic account, and so you'll never have any credit facilities offered to you with that account. Your Lloyds account is a full current account, that also pays interest, and as you are using the benefits of the account, i dont understand why you still have the Barclays one. Id ditch it to be honest, I don't really see what you are getting out of having it, and maybe open a second current account with Lloyds, if you want to keep your bills separate

pwuk

Lloyds without doubt. I've previously held a Barclays Premier Life account and closed it due to poor service.

Whilst some of their benefits are better than Lloyds, for me 'service' is the most important factor and I would rather bank with a bank that understands my needs.

Others will probably say the opposite but this is my personal experience.

Good luck.

mgdavid

Ryan101 wrote: »

........ one with Lloyds which is the Premier Vantage (Yes I do make use of all the benefits) ........

>>>The Lloyds one I have 5k in and use it more for savings with no Direct Debits or anything,
.......the Lloyds account does come with a cheque book I rarely use it these days, .......
........the card is also a £250 CGC but no one accepts these now.

Can you just expand on what you get out of having the Lloyds account, as you've named three things it provides that you don't use.

iluvsaving

From my experience Barclays is far better and you should receive much better service.

Saints2011

Lloyds all the way for me have a Barclays account customer service is poor both on the phone and branch, Lloyds are fine on the phone & in the branch.

Ryan101

mgdavid wrote: »

Can you just expand on what you get out of having the Lloyds account, as you've named three things it provides that you don't use.

Well I use the mobile phone insurance for 2 x Iphones, The AA Cover with Roadside Assistance, Home Start, Relay and Stay Mobile, the Travel insurance for UK and worldwide for all of us, and the home emergency cover (Have used and saved me a fortune) and the ID protection). I did add them all up once to see if I would save by having them separate and I don’t, the closest was a few pounds and it was more hassle to pay them all separate.

And of course getting the Premier Duo cards which allow me to collect more Air miles than the normal Duo Cards with the £50 annual fee waived, so for me its worth it.

InsideInsurance

Whilst I am normally the first person to slate Barclays and totally agree that generally their service is terrible I think the one exception to that is the "premier" call centre who have 99% of the time been great (though they have recently started being pushed to sell if the continuous mentioning of their savings products is anything to go by).

Did consider switching to Lloyds recently and asked to see someone to discuss options etc. I was told I needed to speak to a particular person and after leaving 4 requests for her to call me back over the space of 3 weeks I decided that Lloyds service probably wasnt going to be any better if this is the caliber of the person most likely to be my account manager.

dzug1

There's a school of thought that says it's better to have two current accounts - so that you are not left in the lurch in the event of problems with one of them

The thing is to arrange them so that each is used for what it's best suited for, and to have separate savings account(s) if that's advantageous.

It does require a small amount of work to achieve the optimum solution - if you don't have time/aren't inclined to do that then you have to accept that things may not be 100% ideal