Why do people have 4-5 bank accounts? with the same bank?

lufc7

Me and my wife have several with Natwest purely for money management we find it really helps with budgeting and saving. We have named each account according to it's function. We have:

Advantage gold joint(named- DIrect debits) money is placed in here to cover all the months cheques, DD,SO on payday and the card is locked away.

ISA x 2 one each where we put a equal amount of savings in at the beginning of each month. Money we don't want to be able to be touching either.

Normal savings account joint(Car), money is placed in here monthly to cover future car expenses like tax,MOT repairs etc.

Step account (holiday) as the account name suggests this is an account where we put money to pay for holidays and days off.

Current account Joint (spending) this account contains all our other money and we can spend it till it's gone without worrying about bills etc.

And finally just for peace of mind my wife still keeps a Halifax account open with minimal money in this is incase of issues accessing our Natwest account, which as demonstrated last month is really becoming more of a requirement with today's modern banking system.

So there you have it I know it's not the best or most efficient system(I.e car money and holiday money could all be in the ISA accounts to maximise interest) but it works very well for us.
Hope this explanation helps

Mrs_Ryan

I've got 4 - Barclays Cash Card which is my main account where my salary goes and my phone bill comes out of
RBS Select - used for anything I need to keep separate from my main account for whatever reason. It has a debit card and a cheque book so I can pay for things with it
Halifax EasyCash - this is in my 'professional' name and used for tax rebates and any cheques that may come in that name;
Co-Op Cashminder - I should close this. Its never been used really and I havent even got a PIN number for the card

OH has two which works well - he has a Current Account Plus with Barclays where his wages go and the 'major' bills (Council Tax, Electricity, Water, Mortgage etc) go out of, and an HSBC account where his DLA gets paid into and
his 'expenses' like his prescription card, car insurance etc go out of.

DCFC79

Ive got 3 well 4 Current accounts

RBS my main account, had it for years and will keep it as my main account for years to come

barclays a secondary account which i use maybe twice a week plus i have a savings account linked to it

Natwest a reserve account i use maybe twice a weekbut thinking of closing it.

Nationwide - epty but not got round to closing it

Have 2 ISA's as well.

Ive got 3 accounts in use so if i lose the cad for the main account or theres a problem with it i can use the natwest or barlcays account.

innovate

Last but not least, some people have more than £85K in deposits, and sensibly split their money between banks, so they have the full FSCS protection for all of their funds.

MoneySaverLog

innovate wrote: »

Last but not least, some people have more than £85K in deposits, and sensibly split their money between banks, so they have the full FSCS protection for all of their funds.

But all these accounts are with the same bank, so would make little sense as FSCS works on the total held in the bank / group of banks.

innovate

most responses were talking about multiple banks, so I wrongly assumed we were talking multiple banks

apologies - - - yes, of course, it would make no sense at all to split > £85K across multiple accounts with the same bank.

huw01

I have them to take advantage of offers etc.
First direct - main account and also can take advantage of 8% reg saver
HSBC - 6% interest on up to £2500 balance and also to take advantage of 6% reg saver
Lloyds TSB - two vantage accounts to take advantage of 3% interest
Halifax - for the free monthly fivers, never any balance in it and also to qualify for the Clarity Reward Credit Card for and extra monthly fiver and foreign purchases.
Santander - for the 5% interest on up to £2500 balance and and esaver 3.2% interest
Norwich and Peterborough BS - for the free debit card usage abroad and to qualify for 5% on reg savings and cheap share dealing.
It really isn't that much work to move the money around each month to qualify for all of the benefits, just need to be organised.
Out of all of the above the one that has surprised me is Norwich and Peterborough BS. Didn't know much about them before but they are really helpful. If I had to close them all down sometime in the future due to no free banking I would seriously consider them ad my sole account holders.

cottager

NatWest has always been our main bank and we have 10 accounts there, though some are for a business:

1x joint personal current a/c - certain DDs.
1x sole current a/c each - mine for wages and my own DDs, OH's for nothing much but it's potentially useful to keep.
1x eISA.
3x eSavings (1 me, 2 OH) - sort of "base" accounts, mainly to move money around elsewhere, or put funds in temporarily; also useful because it's one of the few savings accounts from which you can send instant Faster Payments.
Then 3x business accounts: one current and two deposit.

For rewards or higher interest current accounts by cycling through sufficient monthly funding, other online savings or simply for a secondary bank source if ever necessary, we have other accounts at Halifax, Lloyds, Tesco and Ulster Bank. Apart from these everything else is investment-based.

myth123

huw01 wrote: »

Halifax - for the free monthly fivers, never any balance in it and also to qualify for the Clarity Reward Credit Card for and extra monthly fiver and foreign purchases.

It really isn't that much work to move the money around each month to qualify for all of the benefits, just need to be organised.

When you cycle money, say for the halifax account, does the £1000 to qualify have to be one lump payment or could it be in smaller amounts throughout the month which will then total £1000?

This topic intrigues me a lot seeing how many accounts people have and how organised others are!!

cottager

myth123 wrote: »

When you cycle money, say for the halifax account, does the £1000 to qualify have to be one lump payment or could it be in smaller amounts throughout the month which will then total £1000?

It can be a series of smaller amounts totalling £1k in the month. As an example, send the same £100 through it 10 times, or whatever combination you want as long as it's £1k altogether. Only has to be there a matter of minutes or even seconds to count before you send it round again -- just need to make sure it's arrived safely in the a/c before sending it out again, if you aren't otherwise keeping a working balance in there, just in case something goes haywire with the transfers (as we now know it can, viz RBS!)