How/Why did you choose your first Current Account?

Legacy_user

Hi everyone

After spending hours reading on here about current accounts and the every day issues they cause, but also about switching or returning to a specific bank, I thought it could be interesting to find out how people chose their very first bank account. In today's world, it seems very much down to £100 incentives or £5/month payment, but before all that, what influenced your decision?

I'll start, my very first account was with Lloyds TSB, my grandmother decided for me after looking up some information on good old Teletext, in those days I didn't have a clue...

AlwaysLearnin

A while ago now, but MY first account (i.e. excluding savings accounts set up by parents when a kid) was Barclays, for the simple reason that they were the only bank to have a cashpoint in the town we lived in. When I moved out (and moved town) I went to Halifax as I got a better mortgage deal as a current acct holder, with the added convenience of having my finances in the one place.

dr_adidas01

Its was the Midland bank (Now HSBC) simply because my parents banked with them and I had a savings account with them when I was young. Plus it was the only bank in the town where we lived.

dzug1

I think my first was with Midland as a mate had a job there.

I replaced it a few years later (when it started charging, as they did in those days if you weren't a student) with a Girobank account which I've still got (through several different reincarnations), plus one or two others acquired en route

CKhalvashi

I was first with HSBC, as my parents bank with them, and my first current account was with Sberbank in Russia.

I'm still with HSBC in the UK, so they can't be doing that bad!

DragonQ

I needed a bank account to earn EMA whilst at sixth form. My mum used to work for TSB, so she took me to a Lloyds TSB.

Still with them to this day for my everyday banking, mainly because of their Vantage current/savings account combo. In general they've been good, and when there's problems they tend to get resolved swiftly and they are quick to offer compensation (perhaps cos I've been with them for many years).

oldagetraveller

My employer, when I was an apprentice, changed from a weekly cash wage payment to bank transfer. I didn't have a current account at the time but opened an account with Barclays to have my wages paid into. Only because it was the nearest bank branch to where I lived. No car, had to walk or cycle!(when I were a lad)
Barclays moved to a newly built branch(across the road) and in doing so made a mess of my savings account transfer to the tune of a £30 loss which they couldn't find and denied all knowledge of. That was almost a weeks wage at the time!
I moved everything then to TSB (that's pre Lloyds involvement) a hundred yards further up the road.
I got my revenge on Barclays a couple of years ago when they were offering a £100 incentive to open a current account with them. On receipt of the £100 I took the money and ran. In this instance what goes around certainly came around for their 40 year old error.

Hazzanet

First 'Current' account was a Lloyd's Bank 'Headway' account held at the Great Barr branch back in 1994.

Local branch, at the time good interest and access to cheque book and cheque card and pretty decent service.

Peter999_2

My first bank account was with the Halifax at 13. It was because my parents banked with them, but mainly because they gave me a cash card for the ATM's.

My first account while working was with Barclays at 16 and a week old. Joined them as they gave me a Visa Debit card - I loved that.

InsideInsurance

True first bank account was NatWest because it was who my parent banked with and it was also in the days when they gave the pig family to junior account holders.

First "adult" account was with RBS because they had the best student offer and they had a branch on campus at uni so was easy (was at a scottish uni)

Fell out with RBS and went to Barclays as the reduced fee PremierLife gave a reasonable set of benefits for the fee.

Would move away from Barclays too but I think there arent any better offers out there having found First Direct and Handelsbanken to have no better service

pmduk

My first was with Williams & Glyns, back then they used to return the cheques that you had written to you.