Need an 'fair' basic bank account

sarah69696pink

Hi All,

My brother is after a new bank account that has absolutely NO overdraft facility.

He wants a basic account that he will put his weekly spending money into where he can withdraw money and maybe use the card in shops (though this second bit is not essential).

He'd hoped to get the HSBC basic bank account, as he currently has a HSBC current account, so it would have been good for him in terms of ease of internet banking. But when we went in today we were told than if he only had £10 in the account and he tried to make a £20 payment (or withdrawal) it would not necessarily be declined and he may get given the £20 and then face bank charges.

The point of this bank account is to help him manage his finances so does anyone know of a bank account that will be what he needs?
Thanks for your help.

ky822000

I have a Co-op basic bank account (no overdaft facility) with a debit card and internet banking which I am very happy with.

Transferring money and paying bills via the internet is very easy, but 'spends' (apart from cash withdrawal) do not show up on the internet banking for a number of days so I am not sure how suitable this would be for your needs??

Apart from that, I can't fault them, and I run a spreadsheet to keep track of my debit card spending. Run as a purely cash account it could work well for you.

callum9999

It's no easier to have a HSBC basic account than it is to have one with any other bank. Faster payments are virtually the same as internal transfers nowadays (before someone complains - yes I'm sure they run on different systems, but from a consumer point of view, they might as well be identical).

sarah69696pink

It's just so he can see all his accounts on one webpage really - its hard enough to encourage him to do his banking and remembering various passwords etc for different accounts may put him off even more - although he's more than happy to go to a different bank if they do an account that definitely does not do an overdraft at all.

Gromitt

If he runs the account strictly as a cash account (withdrawing cash from ATMs rather than using cards) then any account should be suitable as you can check the balance before withdrawing funds to ensure you don't go overdrawn.

pqrdef

Your brother needs a budget, not a basic bank account. Spending until you run out isn't an effective way of managing money.

Also, he needs to keep track of his own spending instead of relying on the bank to do it. Transactions aren't instantaneous and a debit card doesn't communicate with the bank through the ether, so the bank doesn't always know what you've been doing with it and what's in the pipeline.

The safest thing would be a savings account with a cash card.

Derivative

Use cash.

I take out £30 at the beginning of the week.

That's my food and social money until the end of the week.

This strategy can be adjusted - you may take out £35, £50, or £100 as suits.

Faffing around with bank accounts is overcomplicating things.

amiehall

This facility did used to be available from HSBC though. Did no-one have a solo card when they were a child? Every transaction is actually authorised with the bank before it's approved and, if your balance is too low, it's declined fee free. Sadly they use Visa now.

An account that provides a solo card or visa electron may be more suitable. Other kinds of card authorise payments at the till without always checking funds with the bank.

CLAPTON

maybe investigate a savings a/c with a cash card?

pqrdef

amiehall wrote: »

Every transaction is actually authorised with the bank before it's approved and, if your balance is too low, it's declined fee free.

This system is unbelievably broken. Every few weeks on here we get two types of threads

(1) my money is all locked up because the bank is holding it for a payment that's never going to happen

(2) I've got an overdraft on my no-overdraft account because the bank stopped holding money for a payment which then went ahead.

Which is why you shouldn't rely on the bank to know what you've spent. The bank doesn't know what happened.

pmduk

A pen and paper would work as well.