getting organised

jennifernil

I will keep a few for that, but when you get to my age, it is wise to streamline stuff slightly.

badger09

innovate wrote: »

I have been a member of the 20+ club for some time myself. The original set up does take a little time but assuming you document everything and have your monthly deposits sorted (I do SOs), it will all run with very little further effort. My mandatory monthly DDs are all one pounders with Tesco and some old Egg account, but people say you can do it with Tesco only. Well worth your while IMO since you are talking about hundreds a year. Goferit!!

I thought you were a founder member

I prefer the manual approach to the 'monthly shuffle'. But I do like to be in control and a fairly simple spreadsheet keeps everything on track

trailingspouse

Well if it's good enough for Yorkshire Boy, it's good enough for us. We're going to open a Santander 123 account each. That gets all of our money earning 3% straight off, which is a huge improvement on what's happening at the moment. I'm going to see about a 123 credit card too - most of our spending is at supermarkets and petrol stations, so that makes sense. I've currently got an Asda card that gives me 0.5% cashback on everything, and 1% at Asda stores. That was fine when I shopped regularly at Asda, but times change and I mostly shop at Morrisons now. I can use the 123 credit card at the places I get cashback, and the Asda card everywhere else.

Once that's all sorted we'll go for a couple of Club Lloyds accounts, to get some of the money earning 4%, then once they're sorted we'll look at FlexDirect or TSB to get 5%. Who knows, we might bump in to some of you in the 20+ clubhouse after all!!

Mr_Goodkat

trailingspouse wrote: »

Well if it's good enough for Yorkshire Boy, it's good enough for us. We're going to open a Santander 123 account each. That gets all of our money earning 3% straight off, which is a huge improvement on what's happening at the moment. I'm going to see about a 123 credit card too - most of our spending is at supermarkets and petrol stations, so that makes sense. I've currently got an Asda card that gives me 0.5% cashback on everything, and 1% at Asda stores. That was fine when I shopped regularly at Asda, but times change and I mostly shop at Morrisons now. I can use the 123 credit card at the places I get cashback, and the Asda card everywhere else.

Once that's all sorted we'll go for a couple of Club Lloyds accounts, to get some of the money earning 4%, then once they're sorted we'll look at FlexDirect or TSB to get 5%. Who knows, we might bump in to some of you in the 20+ clubhouse after all!!

A decent starting point although two 123 accounts will cost you £48 a year and get only 3% interest compared to higher interest rates on non fee paying accounts elsewhere. I would probably only go for one 123 accounts to house the cash back dd's and stick £20k in there to start but run it lower as you get higher paying interest accounts elsewhere.


May also be worth you looking at Flex Plus with Nationwide it costs £10 a month but can offset some of that cost by getting 3% on £2.5k and will get (If joint account) the family worldwide travel insurance, breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance

innovate

Mr_Goodkat wrote: »

A decent starting point although two 123 accounts will cost you £48 a year and get only 3% interest compared to higher interest rates on non fee paying accounts elsewhere. I would probably only go for one 123 accounts to house the cash back dd's and stick £20k in there to start but run it lower as you get higher paying interest accounts elsewhere

The £48 is probably very quickly eliminated by cashback but I agree, the simplicity of the 123 comes at the cost of interest. If I were to start out now, I would definitely have a 123 for the cashback, but with just £3K plus the DD amounts. In parallel, max the TSB Plus, the Club Lloyds and the FlexDirect accounts because £15,500 at 5% and £10,000 at 4% strikes me as a better deal than 25,500 at 3%.

I hazard a guess, but the reason YorkshireBoy is only now starting with a 123 would be that he got better interest elsewhere up to now :cool:

Mr_Goodkat

innovate wrote: »

The £48 is probably very quickly eliminated by cashback but I agree, the simplicity of the 123 comes at the cost of interest. If I were to start out now, I would definitely have a 123 for the cashback, but with just £3K plus the DD amounts. In parallel, max the TSB Plus, the Club Lloyds and the FlexDirect accounts because £15,500 at 5% and £10,000 at 4% strikes me as a better deal than 25,500 at 3%.

I hazard a guess, but the reason YorkshireBoy is only now starting with a 123 would be that he got better interest elsewhere up to now :cool:

Agree the cash back will eliminate the £48 cost across the two accounts its just that for £24 they could get all the cash back and 3% on up to £20k.


They could then get higher paying interest accounts from the likes of Lloyds, TSB and Nationwide without any monthly fee.


The OP can get 3% on £10k with their two Lloyds Vantage accounts until July so they have some time to open the accounts.


If I was the OP I would - Close the fee paying Lloyds Account
Open a 123 account put in 20k and move all cash back paying dd's


Open a Club Lloyds (or one each) for 4% on £5k plus access to the regular saver


Open a flex plus for 3% on £2.5k (I know there is a cost of £10 a month but if they as a family if they need all the features - world wide travel, phone insurance and breakdown then good value). If they don't need all these features then buying the policies elsewhere would be cheaper but given the figures the OP quoted for insurance this account would be a better option.


Over the coming months open up to six TSB Plus to house £12k at 5% and have those in place to house the vantage money when the rate drops.


I love the 123 account for cash back and also the 3% on up to £20k but think there are better options after one of these accounts for the OP.


I would not be surprised to see other interest paying current accounts / switching incentives to be introduced in the future so the OP could also take advantage of those.

phemark

Hi,

1) Question to all who have 20+ accounts: does this affect how banks see you in any negative way? If, for instance, I will want a mortgage in couple of years, and banks look at my history and see 20+ accounts, wont that be a "bad" sign for them (as you are exploiting (probably not the correct word here) banks). Or would it be better, seeing that you can manage your money well?

Basically, are there any negative aspects in having many bank accounts (apart from handling difficulties)?

2) And also, is changing main account often for 100 pounds rewards a bad thing too?

These questions are holding me back from opening more then a couple of accounts.

Thanks

YorkshireBoy

innovate wrote: »

I hazard a guess, but the reason YorkshireBoy is only now starting with a 123 would be that he got better interest elsewhere up to now :cool:

I have been earning a 'clean' 3-5% elsewhere on my cash (along with investing some too), and because I spend so much time away from home my bills are very small (although my Council Tax is huge!).


However, with Lloyds Vantage cutting their interest rate (and potentially BoS doing the same) I need to get as close to 3% as I can on that cash...so now's the time!

YorkshireBoy

phemark wrote: »

1) Question to all who have 20+ accounts: does this affect how banks see you in any negative way? If, for instance, I will want a mortgage in couple of years, and banks look at my history and see 20+ accounts, wont that be a "bad" sign for them (as you are exploiting (probably not the correct word here) banks). Or would it be better, seeing that you can manage your money well?

Basically, are there any negative aspects in having many bank accounts (apart from handling difficulties)?

2) And also, is changing main account often for 100 pounds rewards a bad thing too?

These questions are holding me back from opening more then a couple of accounts.

I don't have a mortgage (well I do, but it's 100% offset so I don't make a payment on it), but it wouldn't bother me having so many accounts if I was considering one. I'd simply cut my (rather excessive) overdraft facilities so as to present a picture of less available credit/exposure to problems.

I'm certain that showing a mortgage underwriter your bank statements and explaining they're used as savings accounts will allay any fears they may have about the sheer number.

With regard to [2], I'd never close my longest held account (currently 34+ years and not used as my main account)...but I don't mind ditching and switching the others as deals come along.

innovate

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I don't have a mortgage (well I do, but it's 100% offset so I don't make a payment on it), but it wouldn't bother me having so many accounts if I was considering one. I'd simply cut my (rather excessive) overdraft facilities so as to present a picture of less available credit/exposure to problems.

I'm certain that showing a mortgage underwriter your bank statements and explaining they're used as savings accounts will allay any fears they may have about the sheer number.

With regard to [2], I'd never close my longest held account (currently 34+ years and not used as my main account)...but I don't mind ditching and switching the others as deals come along.

yep, pretty much exactly same answers from me.