Money management account idea for the Banks

denione

I am in the process of switching to a Nationwide Flex Plus current account (newly featured on MSE premium accounts) and whilst looking around the market I tried to find an account where I could manage my budget and put sums of money each month into 'folders' rather than open lots of different accounts to set aside money for holidays or other planned expenditure. No such account functionality exists that I can find or am I missing something?

:idea:
With today's technology it should be possible to create folders (like in email) in your online bank account to set aside for annual expenses or projects. It could show folder totals against the whole amount in your account.

If any other organised MSE users agree vote for this idea and so MSE can nudge the banks, get a bit more service and competition going between them! I will be a triallist as I need a bit of organisation in my finances.

ColdIron

Barclays allows you to open up simple savings accounts online. As many as you like I think and you can rename them. Awful interest naturally but they are 'folders'. I think one or two other banks do this as well

opinions4u

I've got numerous named (e.g. car, holiday, rainy day) Halifax accounts working just the way you describe.

Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB work the same way. They're not alone.

It took me 25 seconds from click to funding to open the most recent one. So I'd say it's preferable to fannying about with sub-folders etc.

agrinnall

When IF started up they did this, using the concept of 'jars' for different things. No idea if they still do.

I'm not sure why you think MSE should or would get involved in campaining for the banks to do this, if you want a bank that you're with to offer it then I'm sure they will have a means for you to contact them with your suggestion.

denione

Thanks all, I still fancy having a holistic view in one place with 'folders' for allocated money rather than keeping tabs on other accounts but I'll look at what you suggest.

And I have asked Nationwide to look into it so we'll see if they can do it for me.

Mint1955

I am with nationwide and I have a main account and 8 or 10 other pots which I labelled as I felt the need I.e shopping, petrol, savings, holidays etc

pmduk

Playing devil's advocate here, but would what happen if a transaction exceeded the amount available in a particular pot? Obviously the bank will pay the transaction, but I can predict the howls of protest from people on here complaining that the bank had taken the amount from the "wrong" pot.

System

Woolwich and Intelligent Finance both offered this functionality.

Woolwich doesn't exist as such now and IF is mostly closed to new business.

Jules2012

That's a good idea. I would rather keep my one savings account and being able to create multiple sub-folders I can name and separate my saving plans.

Anthorn

On budgeting going back donkeys years, Girobank plc and then Alliance and Leicester had a budgeting account which calculated bills for the coming year, split it into 12 monthly payments and with a fee and interest free loan where needed. Incidentally, I was rejected for that account at a time when I banked with them and had American Express and Barclaycard in good standing lmao.

That would appear to me to be a better idea for budgeting.

Hominu

pmduk wrote: »

Playing devil's advocate here, but would what happen if a transaction exceeded the amount available in a particular pot? Obviously the bank will pay the transaction, but I can predict the howls of protest from people on here complaining that the bank had taken the amount from the "wrong" pot.

If its a savings account then you will not be able to have DDs or SOs setup on the account, only to be able to transfer money between the pots and other accounts, so no fear of exceeding the balance or the bank taking money from the wrong 'pot'.

The closest Nationwide get is seperate savings account which you can rename, but barclays allow you to setup upto 12 savings pots as you describe.

Personally I just use a single savings account at the bank, but at home I have the account split into multiple pots. So I tell the balance of any pot and transfer between them without logging in. It also means that if I move the underlying savings account due to a better interest rate elsewhere, I don't have to worry about if the new bank has the savings pots idea.

Which brings me to another problem: If you have multiple pots on a savings account, in which pot would the bank put your interest payments?