Nationwide or Halifax ?

cheeky-virgin

I have plan to get the mortgage in 12 to 14 months time and would like to get the advice from memebers who should i bank with ???

I am with barclays at the moment but hate them.

In term of the facility and customer service please.

Manky thanks

Cheeky

rb10

Both Halifax and Nationwide give pretty decent customer service, although Nationwide will generally come higher up in survey results.

A Halifax current account will give you £5 per month; Nationwide will give you European travel insurance or 2% interest - work out which is best for you.

Both Nationwide and Halifax have some 'exclusive' mortgage deals only for their current account customers ... but there's no knowing which will be better in a year's time. You can always switch again then if that helps you to get a better mortgage deal.

pinkdalek

Haven't a Nationwide in my town so I can't comment on them but the advantage of Halifax is you can speak to them face to face about your mortgage, even once you're an existing mortgage customer. Certain banks out there don't want to know you once you have the mortgage with them and say you have to use the telephone!

Halifax do reward well and offer good incentives if you bank with them and take out a mortgage also. They generally offer the same products to new and existing customers - eg savings rates are available, their reward a/c, sometimes they may offer incentives to new customers e.g. £100 to swtich bank, however as an existing customer I don't feel ripped off here as I've benefitted from £5 each month for numerous years now

Gromitt

Personally, I'd open an account with both of them. Probably switch to the Nationwide, but open the Halifax even if its just for the free £75/year (£60 after basic rate tax). I'd normally say their instant savings products too, but they've gone down the pan recently.

innovate

Gromitt wrote: »

Personally, I'd open an account with both of them.

Me too, same reasons as Gromitt.

Nationwide had some nice offers for existing current account customers this year (4.25% ISA, 6% Regular Saver etc). Whether they will do more of this remains to be seen but I would assume they will.

Of course, this is no reason not to collect the monthly fiver from Halifax (or 3 monthly fivers, if your partner also opens the same account with them, and the two of you could also have a joint account). Required monthly funding can easily be done by Standing Orders.