How/Why did you choose your first Current Account?

Lagoon

My first proper account was with HSBC, as my mum banked with them. I know they were the closest to our house when we moved into a new town, so I think she went with them for that reason and when I wanted my own account it seemed like the sensible place to go.

Quite a few years later I moved to First Direct as they enticed me through being quite innovative with their online banking, and I preferred not to deal with people if possible. Since they were HSBC-owned and I trusted HSBC, I moved over. I stayed with them for a while, but ended up getting incredibly annoyed at their customer 'service' so moved over to Natwest who I've been with ever since and very happy with.

LittleVoice

How/Why

How
In 1969 I opened my first current by going to the Midland Bank in Grosvenor Place, SW1, and asking to open one, naming my employing organisation which had its cheque account there too.
Deposited some funds, had 5s deducted for the pre-paid stamp duty for the cheques provided.

Why
I wanted to send a payment by cheque instead of using Postal Orders.

kloana

I opened a Midland Bank account when they visited my school in the mid-1990s. I was lured by some small free gift or another.

Forgot all about it for 4-5 years, until this new fangled HSBC place wrote to me, enclosing a SOLO 'debit' card when I turned 16. Gradually as I began to receive college EMA, part-time wages, etc., HSBC became my proper current account. I now have my mortgage, etc. with them - partly because I like them, partly because it's convenient.

It could have been any bank. As long as they supply me with a debit card and the facility to make DDs and STOs - preferably via internet banking - I'd be happy. Ideally, a local branch is preferred, but not essential. My local HSBC closed a while ago, but it didn't make much difference.

27col

My first account was with Midland Bank. When I was a Cunard Electrical Officer in 1961, our pay went into a Midland account, so we had no choice but to open a Midland account in order to get our spending money. The Cunard liners actually had Midland bank branches on board, so it was no hardship(No pun intended). I have stuck with Midland/ HSBC for over 50 years.

kaych

My first account was with Barclays because they came to our Uni and helped us opened the account. It was nice and easy. They told us there would be no fee on the account as long as I had £1000 in there. No problem in the first year but this increased to £2000 in the second year. So went to HSBC and opened an account there instead but they would only gave me a SOLO card, which wasn't much use but continued to use them.

Got my first job after Uni and HSBC still wouldn't give me a proper debit card, so went to Lloyds and they gave me a proper account and debit card. Have used them ever since until one day, I wanted to close some of the saving accounts online that weren't being used as they had really bad rates, they told me I had to do it in branch. I said they were just saving accounts with no money and not being used but still a no. That was when I realised I needed an online bank as I work full time and it is not easy to get to the branches as they pretty much open at the same time as when I am at work. I don't want to spend my weekend queuing in banks either.

I am now with First Direct and loving it, no more waiting on the phone and matters and queries always get answered and resolved in a phone call that last less than 5 minutes!:j

Wow that was a long story...:rotfl:

Dr_Cuckoo3

lawstudent wrote: »

Stricter? They wouldn't be allowed to get away with that nonsense nowadays.

Still the case at First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland and the other NI banks aren't much better

Dr_Cuckoo3

My first current account was a CO-OP Bank current account and I opened it because they claimed to be "ethical" (whatever that means ?)

CO-OP appeared at the top of the list for that and Barclays at the bottom

I always find it slightly amusing when people ("Born Again" types) post on the forum asking for "ethical" bank recommendations

At the time (many years ago) , you could tell that someone with a CO-OP Bank card had made the decision to forgo ease of access to a wide branch network in favour of "ethics" in the same way that First Direct customers chose their bank for the "I'm better than you" factor

I also opened current accounts at Natwest , Girobank, Northern Rock , Nationwide, Woolwich BS , Town & Country BS , North of England BS and Western Trust shortly after

A parent had a Girobank account , although I wasn't influenced by that - I remember that they used brown envelopes for statements

Midland Bank were particularly difficult to open an account with at the time - requiring salary to be credited to the account and accounts elsewhere to be closed (I approached two branches and received the same response) , so I opened an account much later on

Lizling

1st current account was Abbey, chosen because, well I was 2 or 3 years old and that's where my parents took me!

2nd current account was NatWest, because Dad liked the piggy banks.

Mrs_Ryan

Very 1st account was a NatWest Card Plus account when I was about 13 as ex brother in law was manager at the local branch at the time. When I got a little older (about 16-17) I started to use the account when I got my first part time job and I used to go into branch quite a bit, my sister and I look quite alike so a lot of the staff used to look worried when they served me
First 'grown up' account was HSBC student account when I was 18. Opened it because of the free railcard which was a godsend to me. I'm with Barclays now - I had a teen account with them but closed it when I got the HSBC one.

Vortigern

1969 - No incentives, not even pigs. No cash machines, not even those punched card ones. Went for the nearest, which was Nat West (or was it just Westminster Bank Ltd). There was Stamp Duty of 2d on each cheque, paid in advance on issue of a new cheque book. Stayed with NatWest for 23 years.

Another factor to be considered around then was whether to boycott Barclays for their alleged links to apartheid in South Africa.