Eccount has anyone got any reviews?

pmduk

The co-op is quite harsh with people who don't want to manage their accounts properly, not only do they charge for a failed dd, (£15, higher than many other banks), but it's 3 strikes and you're out. The suggestion you make for separate accounts, whilst helpful, will only work for those people prepared to manage their money.

The_pc_tech

True

I did go through a stage of living on my overdraft so I can empathise a bit.

I injured my shoulder and was off work for a couple of months, as I was recovering I decided to get my financial affairs sorted before going back to work so my salary wasn't being gobbled by the bank.

So that's when I decided to pay off the overdraft, ditch the fee paying account and switch banks and I set things up as they are now.

If the OP spends a bit of time setting it up it should then pretty much run itself.

Anthorn

The_pc_tech wrote: »

In my expwrience the prepaid cards work out very expensive (I did have a branded one which was issued by a building society and they charged for pretty much everything, I have looked at the ones currently on offer too so I don't use my debit card on the web but they really do work out expensively)

I agree with some reservation: It appeared that the prepaid market was saturated but that was due to different cards operated by the same program managers. So charges were much the same across different cards and often the only difference between cards was whether you liked the design or not. But these days we have new players such as Kalixa and established names such as Western Union bringing their prepaid offering to the UK from other countries. That competition is forcing charges down so these days we have free POS transactions whereas not so long ago we would have paid 2.75%.

Overall, The U.K. is some way behind but on the same track as the U.S. in the prepaid sector but it remains to be seen whether it will have the same effect on consumers of traditional banking.

SnowTiger

Anthorn wrote: »

Oh I don't have any problems with my money management...

Okay.

So why do you pay STB £12.50 a month to manage your money for you?

I know plenty of people who are hopeless with their bank account and have no idea what money is going in and going out. For them a STB account might be suitable and may save them money.

But I can't see that you get much for your money. You already have another currently account that offers similar facilities without a fee.

Anthorn

SnowTiger wrote: »

Okay.

So why do you pay STB £12.50 a month to manage your money for you?

I know plenty of people who are hopeless with their bank account and have no idea what money is going in and going out. For them a STB account might be suitable and may save them money.

But I can't see that you get much for your money. You already have another currently account that offers similar facilities without a fee.

You might find my answer somewhat hilarious but here goes: I like them and I feel comfortable there. My loss if it can be viewed as such is not £12.50p per month because I get cash rewards when shopping. On average it's £4.00 per month.

No, Santander doesn't provide similar facilities: Their online banking doesn't even come close. Probably where Santander scores is the debit card whereas the STB card is a prepaid Mastercard. But in use there is little difference

http://www.securetrustbank.com/current-account/help-videos

The_pc_tech

Anthorn wrote: »

I agree with some reservation: It appeared that the prepaid market was saturated but that was due to different cards operated by the same program managers. So charges were much the same across different cards and often the only difference between cards was whether you liked the design or not. But these days we have new players such as Kalixa and established names such as Western Union bringing their prepaid offering to the UK from other countries. That competition is forcing charges down so these days we have free POS transactions whereas not so long ago we would have paid 2.75%.

Overall, The U.K. is some way behind but on the same track as the U.S. in the prepaid sector but it remains to be seen whether it will have the same effect on consumers of traditional banking.

If it works for you then fair enough but the truth is these cards are aimed primarily at those on low incomes so I do have somewhat of a problem with a percentage of a person's money that they may have had credited by their employer or the state for them and their children to live on gobbled up by some finance company.

As for the US, they brought the world home shopping so are happy to get ripped off.

Anthorn

The_pc_tech wrote: »

If it works for you then fair enough but the truth is these cards are aimed primarily at those on low incomes so I do have somewhat of a problem with a percentage of a person's money that they may have had credited by their employer or the state for them and their children to live on gobbled up by some finance company.

As for the US, they brought the world home shopping so are happy to get ripped off.

In fact the whole of the alternative prepaid services sector whether they be a simple card or a full-blown account is aimed at the unbanked who are not necessarily low-paid. In fact they are a potentially profitable market measured in billions world-wide.

The way the blurb goes and this can be verified with a web search is that the banks deny people banking services either by eliminating existing accounts or by denying new accounts through imposing conditions which can't be met. But those unbanked people still want banking services. So the banks have created a potentially profitable niche market from which they themselves are excluded. The prepaid sector seeks to serve that niche market.

Brains64

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

Why on earth do people pay when they could get it free with a simple account

Like everything else it all comes down to what one gets for ones dosh:D, I mean, if there are useful extra benefits from paying then I don't mind so much but if you don't get anything more than you would with a free basic account then I agree it's pointless.

I'm presuming though that the ones that charge a monthly fee will have some redeeming feature as a result, such as a planned or unplanned overdraft facility or something like that??, the free ones will have limitations I'd imagine, well, you know what they say "you don't get ought for naught".

I have two accounts now myself, one is a main current account which I pay a monthly fee for but I get benefits from that, however, I opened a basic one recently which also charges a fee that's not much less and I'm asking myself exactly the same question to be honest, what am I getting for the fee I'll be paying on this each month??, the jury's out on that at the moment!

MuhammadImran

I opened one with eccount and tried to get it upgraded; even upgraded, I found out, the account is not really useful, no IBAN, no Faster Payments, you have to tell them when you are expecting money etc etc etc.

In order to upgrade my account, they asked for a copy of my passport, so I sent them a PDF copy; guess what??? They can't open PDF files.

They didn't tell me this, I found this out on bout my 10th call; sent a jpg instead (good 300 dpi resolution), again ...nothing.

Rang and rang, and was told resolution wasn't good enough, so re-sent as 600 dpi; it was so f***cking clear now, I though my passport was alive!!!!!

No response again, rang up only to be told if I couldn't send a clearer copy (!!!) my account would be closed. What account????

Anyway, it strikes me that eccount is just a scam to get your £12.50 fee each month. Avoid, avoid, avoid, go with thinkbank instead.

innovate

MuhammadImran wrote: »

Avoid, avoid, avoid, go with thinkbank instead.

Or better still - manage your own finances and save that monthly fee alltogether