Advice needed on if I should keep or close an account

gettingthere28

Bit of advice needed.

I have the following bank accounts and balances:

Lloyds Vantage = £5k
Bank of Scotland Vantage 1 = £5k
Bank of Scotland Vantage 2 = £5k
Bank of Scotland Vantage 3 = £4k
Halifax Reward = £100 (Overdraft £500 – Overdraft not used)
Barclays = £600

Now the Lloyds and Bank of Scotland accounts are used for the £5k @ 3% Interest, and the Halifax is for the £5 reward each month.

The Barclays one is a bit of a loose end, it pays no interest and I use it to simply take out cash and write cheques, and I transfer anything from Halifax that is over £100 into it. The Halifax has my Direct Debits set up on it, and I have a cheque book and contactless Debit card and £500 overdraft limit on it (Never used but there for emergencies). Barclays refuse to give me a contactless debit card or overdraft until I have run the account for 6 months with them !.

I am therefore struggling to find a reason to keep the Barclays’ account, the Halifax seem to give me more and have Uk call centres which I find easier to deal with !.

I think I would be better off keeping the Halifax and closing Barclays, and putting anything over £100 (Which I keep as a float in the Halifax) into the Bank of Scotland Vantage 3, which only has £4k in it and at least that way I would get a bit of interest rather than it be in Barclays earning nothing.

What do you guys think if it was you ?.

YorkshireBoy

The first thing that stands out is why is an overdraft facility so important when you've (instant) access to so much cash?

Also, how fast are you amassing cash? If fairly rapidly, you might want to consider grabbing a couple more LTSB Vantage accounts and splitting the cash up a little (3% is paid on £3-5K as I'm sure you know) so you're getting 3% for longer (just in case LTSB fiddle with the T&Cs, ie they could go 'max one sole account' for new customers as Halifax did with their Reward accounts some time ago).

Gromitt

I've got pretty much the same setup apart from I have 3xTSB Vantage, Nationwide, and First Direct.

I closed my Barclays accounts a few weeks ago as I saw no point or use for them. Every other account has a purpose.

gettingthere28

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The first thing that stands out is why is an overdraft facility so important when you've (instant) access to so much cash?

Also, how fast are you amassing cash? If fairly rapidly, you might want to consider grabbing a couple more LTSB Vantage accounts and splitting the cash up a little (3% is paid on £3-5K as I'm sure you know) so you're getting 3% for longer (just in case LTSB fiddle with the T&Cs, ie they could go 'max one sole account' for new customers as Halifax did with their Reward accounts some time ago).

Hi,
No not amassing cash that fast, Overdraft was given when I opened the account, they told me I could have up to £2k and I said there was no way I would want that, but £500 seemed okay just incase I forgot about a Direct Debit of something. The contactless card is not really important either, but its more that Halifax just gave me one and Barclays wont trust me with one until 6 months !, but its mainly because any extra money is sitting in Barclays earning nothing, where I could put it in the lower Bank of Scotland vantage account and make something.

gettingthere28

Gromitt wrote: »

I've got pretty much the same setup apart from I have 3xTSB Vantage, Nationwide, and First Direct.

I closed my Barclays accounts a few weeks ago as I saw no point or use for them. Every other account has a purpose.

You think it would be better to close Barclay's then and just concentrate on what I have, and make it work in the best way ?.

COIAHLGW

Wouldn't it be better to keep the Barclays account open for emergencies as it's in a different banking group?

Gromitt

gettingthere28 wrote: »

You think it would be better to close Barclay's then and just concentrate on what I have, and make it work in the best way ?.

Personally, I'd close Barclays and open a Nationwide FlexDirect. Stick £2500 in that and earn 5% for a year and 1% afterwards, which is still better than Barclays 0%.

Plus you'll then get allowed the Flexclusives as and when they arrive. Last year these were the 6% regular saver and 4.25% ISA, so were well worth keeping an account open for.