Lilt and Jellytots most excellent adventure...

killerpeaty

I could have sworn that I had said hi before. I've definitely have read most of this page before!

I just want to say that you are awesome. Some plonker just can't take that away from you!

Lloyds have some pretty low interest rates unless you have the vantage current account (3-5k on 3%), you could use the nationwide wide CA to get 5% on up to 2.5k for one year. I don't know about you, but I was pretty annoyed when carney said that the base rate wasn't going to increase for a while. :mad: They would have had to value our money!

Jellytot sounds incredibly well behaved, I still sometime misbehave when my hair is being cut. :rotfl:

Glad to hear you're doing well. I hope you enjoy your break!

liltdiddylilt

Bonjour Peaty! I'm sure you popped in too on the first page? Anyhow it is lovely to see you drop in!!

I'm currently enjoying my favourite pastime. Sitting in my gorgeous bed (Saturday fresh sheets!!) in my super beautiful sparkly clean bedroom, with my laptop and a cup of tea.

I've got a notepad next to me on which is written all the details I could find about various savings accounts and current accounts which I don't yet have. I also came to the conclusion that Nationwide Flexdirect is the way to go. Not least because Him can send me a referral (I will be the one doing it...) and then we both get £50 if I open an account...

BUT I need to use the switching service in order to get the deal. And I don't want to switch from the perfectly lovely First Direct who currently give me 6% on my regular saver... The Lloyds account I have is a bog-standard current account. It used to have a whopping £2500 overdraft, with the first £500 free of charge, and a lovely £25 a month fee, £5 for going into the overdraft, plus 29.9% interest. Needless to say I was happy to ditch it and run (after cancelling all fees etc!) when I pulled myself out of debt. It's been sat, open but mostly redundant for the last year and a bit. I've kept it open because it is the longest standing account I have. It was opened in 2006 when I left my ex & we split our joint account. Everything else was opened in the last year.... Apparently it is good for my credit history to have older accounts.

Add to this pickle that if I really want to give up the Lloyds account (and it MUST be closed via the service) then I need to move two direct debits (preferably fixed fee not variable) to the Lloyds account... purely to be moved!

Plus sides, they will also move the lump sum I have sat in there when they do the switch. It's 5% on balances up to £2500. I can easily add it into my monthly money shuffle to get the maximum out of it without using it properly.

Things to think about? Any help???

killerpeaty

Are there any fees involved with switching your DDs? Is it just a phone call at lunch or do you need to fill anything in? Do you have any DDs that aren't critical, just in case it all goes pete tong? I honestly don't know, I have one DD at the moment and at most I've had about 3 in my life which lasted for less than a year.

If you have a standard Lloyds account, you could upgrade it free to vantage. Which could be fairly nice. I found that I couldn't upgrade my graduate account to this unfortunately.

After a little bit of research I found this but not much else on the impact of losing a long term account.

Have you looked for any lost accounts to transfer?

Have you been watching These Four Walls? It's the bbc equivalent of benefits street, it's very interesting.

HeadAboveWater

Why not have both?!? I do

What do you 'need' for NW to get the deal? As far as I know, when you are switching accounts, the new bank will contact the old bank to get a list of DD/SOs for you to confirm details. Only confirm as many as you need to get the deal from NW. Leave the rest as is.
For income, it shouldn't matter where it comes from, so manual transfer should suffice.

Well done on all your monies/saving so far

And hope you and jellytot are having a fab holiday

natsplatnat

Hi! Just catching up on your diary and if the NW account is the one paying 5% credit interest.... then I changed almost a year ago and have used it purely as a savings account... I didn't use the switch service and have not transferred a single DD to it .... I have just made sure that I moved £1000 through it each month! (usually done by withdrawing £1000 to a non-NW account and then back again - all on the same day!) Hope this helps and it works the same for you!

liltdiddylilt

Hey folks!!

natsplatnat - thanks for the reply! I have looked and I will easily transfer £1000 around. It's just a case of adding another account into my monthly money shuffle unfortunately in order to get the £50 each for referring a friend that I wanted to do with Him, I need to move two direct debits across to the new account as it must be a complete switch, which includes closing my old account.

I have moved a couple of non-urgent direct debits across. A water DD and my tv license. Easily moved in the end. Once they show in my lloyds account I can use the switching service and hopefully there will be no issue!

My only hesitation is in closing the lloyds account. As I've said before I am worried about the effect on my medium term credit history. Looking at it, I don't need any credit, but I have been told on several occasions that it doesn't look great to only have accounts that have been opened in the last couple of years. Still, I don't expect to move from any other accounts so they will build up eventually and I've had my credit card since 2008/9 I think. It's the only one out of my three accounts that is utterly useless (apart from the long term) so it makes sense for it to be that one. Him is sending the recommend a friend today so as soon as my DD's have moved I will apply.

Still on 'holiday' in Nottingham at the minute. Having a good time but missing my own bed. Jellytot is loving her time with Nannnnnyyyyy and Babwad aka granddad! Back home tomorrow to prepare for work and nursery for us both!

Tax credits have changed date again so I have no idea how much they will be and when they will start coming in properly. Hopefully there will be a letter when I get home! It's added childcare fees to the award now to pay for a portion of nursery.

Jellytot will be 2 in April and I am really struggling with ideas for birthday presents for her. I literally cannot think of anything she needs... Wants are few and far between. A £10 play tent and some more bath toys. So should I open a current account for her of some type? Halifax do a 6% regular saver so maybe I could put her money into that, drip feeding... I never tend to spend a lot on her. Time will come in the future when her Christmas and birthdays are horrifyingly expensive so I buy one present mostly, especially as my huge family buy tonnes. I struggle to fit things in our flat as well!

killerpeaty

I'd be interested to see if your current account is actually closed. Or if Lloyds start sending you better deals.

Just to let you know, this 5% appears to expire 1 year after you open your account whereas Yorkshire bank and Clydesdale have 4% on up to 3k (I think) until March 2015 (me thinks). Also my nationwide account came with an absolute tonne of paperwork. Also they panicked me when I opened my account and they said that they had rejected me for an overdraft! I called up to complain (do not want and do not want a rejection on my credit history) and apparently it's just the way that they word it. Apparently they don't search your history unless you say that you want an overdraft which is after you are approved for the account.

Jellytot would do really well to have a little pot of money for her. That's what my parents did (without me knowing) and I never felt like I was missing out on anything.

Glad to hear you're doing well. Have a lovely holiday!

liltdiddylilt

Hi Peaty. I opened the flexdirect for Him a year ago. He did get mountains of paperwork but none of it interesting. We got 6% until this month on the balance of £2.5k just by moving 1k in and out again. I need to be flexible with this money as this is an overflow of my regular saver so if I need cash, it needs to come from this account. A year is perfect as I expect my finances to change quite often.

I already put aside jellytots child benefit on months when I can for her but it is incorporated into my wider savings pot at the minute. I hope that she never misses out in anything but at the same time I don't want to spoil her with everything she could ever wish for! haha!

And thank you for the good wishes! It's been lovely and I haven't really splashed out on anything

Hope you are well? Started driving yet??? X

killerpeaty

I have no idea why they don't compress it all into 2-3 letters. Telephone and internet banking do not need to be separate! How much money are they spending on this total waste? Aww, I missed 6%?

That must be a difficult balance to hit :-/ Have you given any thought about teaching her about money? I hear people being worried about that a lot.

What have you been doing? Relaxing or being active?

I'm not driving, especially not at the moment. I'm on new medication (£7.80 for an individual prescription! :eek: ) and it's making my twitching and jerking worse. People actually notice it now. So I just feel a bit nervous that I'll twitch the car off the road. But I think it's worth it, things feel different, like needing to pee is no longer painful! It's been years! Years! Plus I haven't had to take any days off due to cold weather.

HeadAboveWater

Hiya!

Hope you enjoyed your holiday and got plenty of rest and TLC Still on holiday mode?!

If jelly isn't wanting much for her birthday, then absolutely, why not open a wee account for her? Means that any ££ gifts from family/friends can be deposited there too. I know you've your head screwed on with regards to money, so do not be worrying about over or under spoiling jelly!

And a wee girlie day out for you both would go down well too I think :) Can I come?!

Think I've only a few months of my 5% on NW current account left. Must check that out actually. Will struggle with hitting the £1k deposit each month now that my hours have been cut, but may just have to do an extra circle of my online transfers on payday