Best Bank for Organising, Tracking, Budgeting etc.

jonnielately

mgdavid wrote: »

Barclays definitely do.
To track your money better it sounds as if simplification would help; why do you have umpteen accounts?

Well less 'umpteen' and more (5.)
I have a current account, my daily usage one (salary, bills.)
I have a student account, still in its overdraft which I'm paying off.
I have a business account for my freelance work.
I have a savings account to put aside the tax from my freelance work.
Then I also have a personal credit card, on £0.00 for emergency use.

The trouble is, two are called 'BANK A/C' and two are called 'FLEX SAVER.' When I'm transferring money around between them, it can get confusing.

Osarkon

Sounds like lloyds online banking will do pretty much everything you need. Take a look!

jonnielately

Osarkon wrote: »

Sounds like lloyds online banking will do pretty much everything you need. Take a look!

Categorising transactions and offering charts?

Osarkon

Yes, I'm sure their money manager is capable of doing that.

Bloomberg

Archi_Bald wrote: »

No software, ran by the bank or anyone else, will remove that issue.

I am not sure why you would not be able to keep a record of all your spending, but if you are not, you need to find a way to get on top of your spending. May be use cash rather than cards, and you will soon know when you have run out of money?

The best spending diary if not abused is a credit card. If you for example take out three hundred pounds for your expenses you will have great difficulty recalling where every single penny went. My advice would be to avoid cash altogether.


I use my Barclaycard Cashback for everything from my utility bills to McDonalds. When the bill comes every single penny is listed.

Hooloovoo

Bloomberg wrote: »

The best spending diary if not abused is a credit card. If you for example take out three hundred pounds for your expenses you will have great difficulty recalling where every single penny went. My advice would be to avoid cash altogether.


I use my Barclaycard Cashback for everything from my utility bills to McDonalds. When the bill comes every single penny is listed.

I completely agree with this.

I avoid cash completely unless there is absolutely no alternative.

Bloomberg

Hooloovoo wrote: »

I completely agree with this.

I avoid cash completely unless there is absolutely no alternative.

Another advantage of credit cards is that even if you lose the receipt you can still get a refund or exchange. I bought a toy for my daughter from Argos and it broke two days later. I lost the receipt, when I went to my local Argos I presented the item along with the card and explained what I wanted an exchange. The cashier made a call to head office who verified the transaction and that was it, job done.

CKhalvashi

Bloomberg wrote: »

Another advantage of credit cards is that even if you lose the receipt you can still get a refund or exchange. I bought a toy for my daughter from Argos and it broke two days later. I lost the receipt, when I went to my local Argos I presented the item along with the card and explained what I wanted an exchange. The cashier made a call to head office who verified the transaction and that was it, job done.

This works with debit cards, too.

I keep about £100 in cash (for places that don't accept card), and about £40 in £1 coins in the console of my car (airport pickups), and apart from that, I try to avoid the stuff like the plague!

With HSBC, I've always had several (mainly savings, but 2 current) accounts marked for different things.

CK

Bloomberg

jonnielately wrote: »

Does anybody know which banks allow you to change account names through Internet Banking? I want to assign custom names for ease-of-use.

Barclays allow you to name your accounts and change the order, for example you could have the account your wages go into at the top. On the mobile app you can change the order but not the names. HSBC don't allow any of the above which really used to annoy me.

jonnielately

Thanks for all your help guys.
I'm going to switch over to Lloyds TSB in the immediate future, their Internet Banking looks great and the Money Manager app is exactly what I was looking for.

Any insider tips and tricks on switching accounts? Anything I should be doing?