Lloyds or Halifax which would you choose ?.

gettingthere28

Way back in 2008 I opened a Lloyds Current account and added vantage, everything has worked well since then although I never got any offers for Credit Cards etc in their Internet Banking. I asked once in the branch and was told it was showing that I was eligible for a Overdraft and Credit card but I had CPD on my account so would automatically be declined, neither myself nor the staff member at the time understood why I had CPD as all three of my Credit Reports were (And still are) prefect.

After just over 4 years there has been no change and I am still not showing any offers in internet banking, I tried a tip mentioned on here about clicking on apply for a 2nd account in Lloyds online banking and if I get told I can’t have one then I still have CPD, I tried and I am told I can’t have a 2nd current account so I guess I still have CPD.

To cut a long story short I recently opened a Halifax Reward account, mainly for the £5 reward but on their online banking if I click on current accounts I will let me open either a current account or the ultimate reward account, and I can also upgrade my Reward account to the ultimate account (Not that I want to), so I guess I don’t have a CPD with the Halifax even though they are part of the same group.

I have run my Lloyds account well, never overdrawn, no charges ever etc, but I guess I am looking for advice that if you were the same would you stick with Lloyds or Move everything to the Halifax who do seem to offer things, and I suppose if I run everything through them then maybe in time I would be offered more stuff.

The only problems is I have £6k in the Vantage account with Lloyds, if I moved that to the Halifax I would only get the £5 and would earn more in interest with Lloyds in a month. I have considered Bank of Scotland (As I am in Scotland anyway) but don’t want to get a CPD with them if I open an account !.

Any advice would be appreciated.

opinions4u

Keep both?

Fund both to get £5 / 4%.

gettingthere28

opinions4u wrote: »

Keep both?

Fund both to get £5 / 4%.

Thanks for that, but which would you use as your 'Main' account, the one you run everything through ?.

YorkshireBoy

gettingthere28 wrote: »

Thanks for that, but which would you use as your 'Main' account, the one you run everything through ?.

Halifax. Just use the Vantage as a savings account.

Gromitt

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Halifax. Just use the Vantage as a savings account.

Any particular reason why?

Personally, I'd prefer to use the LTSB as the main account as they seem more interested. The local Halifax branches always seem to be too busy to want to help.

Just keep the balance >= 3K <= 5K and you'll get 3%. Use two other Vantage accounts for savings.

opinions4u

Gromitt wrote: »

Any particular reason why?

Maximisation of interest.

A "main" account will typically have a reducing balance throughout a pay period.

YorkshireBoy

Gromitt wrote: »

Any particular reason why?

Fundamentally, and as o4u says, to maximise interest.

In addition, it appears LTSB have a very low opinion of the OP so the 'offers' are unlikely to be forthcoming. After 4 years of 'main banking' (including salary credits?) it's time to give up?

Halifax, in my experience, always seem to have a pre-approved (no formal CRA credit search) offers. Indeed, as one credit card is closed I only seem to have to wait a couple of months before there's another one there...and this has been going on for years*.

Branch queues don't bother me as I rarely visit any branch.


* At the moment I'm using a (pre-approved) LTSB Advance card, and the Halifax offers have ceased. It'll be interesting to see if they start again next Feb/Mar once I've closed the Advance card in January.

stclair

OP if I was you I'd take a copy of your Experian and call credit report into a branch explain the situation and ask them to forward it to higher lending then they will review your accounts and remove the CPD if appropriate.

psychic_teabag

Gromitt wrote: »

Any particular reason why?

Personally, I'd prefer to use the LTSB as the main account as they seem more interested. The local Halifax branches always seem to be too busy to want to help.

Just keep the balance >= 3K <= 5K and you'll get 3%. Use two other Vantage accounts for savings.

Since OP has £6k in the account, I assume they have the 4% offer, so would want to try to keep the balance between £5k and £6k. And the whole problem (I think) is that Lloyds won't allow additional accounts.

I'd also tend to use the Lloyds one, just so that I'd know there was always a healthy balance and there was no danger of going overdrawn. Problem with using a non-interest-paying current account as "main" one is that you have to balance between keeping enough in there to cover payments, and not losing interest from having too much in there.

In normal times, you'd use an online savings account to hold any surplus money over the £6k temporarily, but these are strange times :-(

(FWIW I've now moved bills to a Santander 123 account to exploit their cashback + interest. I was using tending to use Lloyds account for more, but now that they're paying 4% again I've gone back to using it as a savings account.)

pinkdalek

Gromitt wrote: »

Any particular reason why?

. The local Halifax branches always seem to be too busy to want to help.

Just keep the balance >= 3K <= 5K and you'll get 3%. Use two other Vantage accounts for savings.

Ever stopped and wondered why they are busy? And seriously is it ALWAYS busy Mon - Sat from the minute they open to the minute they close?

It could be either a) they have no staff and are always this busy in which case why would customers stick with them?

or b) because majority of their customers like them, the products they offer and generally give decent service. Just because it is busy it doesn't mean they do not want to help.

If you ever see a big queue at a chippy common sense tells you it must be good :beer:

As for which to choose? Everyone is different, people buy products or services based on either cost, service, convenience or reliability. If you are a customer who buys on cost then Santander would be up your street, however don't expect the service. If you prefer service then Lloyds/Halifax/First Direct/Nationwide however convenience may be a problem as branches seem to be only in main cities and towns.

Gromitt

pinkdalek wrote: »

Ever stopped and wondered why they are busy? And seriously is it ALWAYS busy Mon - Sat from the minute they open to the minute they close?

Well, I've always thought its due to the fact that the premises are so small and seem to be understaffed. Usually a single ATM stuck to an outside window. I compared it with LTSB which seems to be typically 3 times the size, a lot more staff willing to help and they have multiple ATMs on the inside of the branch which is where I prefer them.

The local chippy is always busy, but they are not that good - they are just the only one in the town!