Advice - shuffling money round accounts

colsten

There is no universal credit rating. Each lender will score your application using their own rules. Having lots of open bank accounts doesn't seem to matter as I have over 20, still get offers for guaranteed credit cards, and have indeed just taken out a new Amex CC. Only two of my accounts have an overdraft facility, but I am never using it, so all accounts are green. As are other accounts such as mobile, CCs etc.

Also, if you don't want a loan, mortgage, overdraft, CC, or a job in the finance sector, your credit history is pretty much irrelevant.

Search the main site for "what your credit score really means", and look for existing forum discussions on credit ratings.

jennifernil

Between the 2 of us, at the moment we fund...

5 Reward accounts (4 with zero balance)
6 TSB Classic Plus (£2k in each)
2 Club Lloyds (£5k in each)
3 BOS Vantage (£4-5k in each)
1 Santander (at least £3k+)

Our income is paid into our joint Reward, from it, on the 2nd of the month, I move £1000 through all the BOS Vantages and the other Reward accounts (I keep it at £1000 to make it simple).

We have moved our utility bills and council tax to Santander for the cashback, so £500 is sent there by SO.

For the TSB accounts, we move the required £500 between accounts, usually on the 2nd.

For the Club Lloyds, we both have other Lloyds accounts and just move the £1500 out and back in.

We used to do it by SO originally, but found it was too difficult with weekends and bank holidays. Now I try to do it all on the 2nd, and move out any interest that takes us over the interest earning limit. Doing it all on the same day means we don't forget an account.

We also have 2 Club Lloyds savers and a FD saver, these are funded by SO from one of the BOS Vantage accounts, which is topped up with any excess from our main account.

Kendall80

I have a comprehensive spreadsheet to calculate monthly totals incl. interest, cashback, credit card debt, total balance etc. That gets updated every month on the 14th (due to santander not going by calendar months)

Account and card details are kept on separate tabs in the same workbook. That includes opening dates, rate and rate expiry, when to switch etc.

However, my main tool for keeping track of all the feed arrangements is a simple bubble diagram/spider diagram on a blank sheet of A4. This has my main Santander account in the middle surrounded by TSB CL+ accounts and Nationwide flexdirects. Club Lloyds to be added shortly. I have 2 way arrows showing the standing order feeds i've set up. There are 9 accounts in total at present.

Its a very simple, visual way of seeing everything I need to see at-a-glance. I would suggest you try something similar if you find its getting a little confusing.

bsms1147

Kendall80 wrote: »

However, my main tool for keeping track of all the feed arrangements is a simple bubble diagram/spider diagram on a blank sheet of A4. This has my main Santander account in the middle surrounded by TSB CL+ accounts and Nationwide flexdirects. Club Lloyds to be added shortly. I have 2 way arrows showing the standing order feeds i've set up. There are 9 accounts in total at present.

Its a very simple, visual way of seeing everything I need to see at-a-glance. I would suggest you try something similar if you find its getting a little confusing.

I made a drawing last week at work and forgot about it, but it's in its most basic form this^, and to explain the different ways of funding all the accounts.

Either all the SOs back and forward between one account and the rest, or have them waterfall from one to the next. Alternatively a combination of the two methods. Just make sure there's enough in each account to cover the SOs.

Anagran

Thanks for all the replies.

It is interesting to hear of different methods people are using.

I think I might need to do a combination of SO's and keeping some as manual transfers, a diagram seems a good idea to see how it will work. I am just worried I end up losing the benefits of having the accounts by getting charges if I make a mistake.

Thanks everyone

Anagran

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Prompted by bsms1147, here's my chart:

Also, I wanted to see if I could post images

jennifernil

Anagran wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

It is interesting to hear of different methods people are using.

I think I might need to do a combination of SO's and keeping some as manual transfers, a diagram seems a good idea to see how it will work. I am just worried I end up losing the benefits of having the accounts by getting charges if I make a mistake.

Thanks everyone

Anagran

It just needs a little concentration for about 30 minutes, once a month.

I haven't lost any interest yet.

OH is now asking me what I do, so he can do it should I be run over by "that bus"!!!

Zola.

Does the interest really make this worth it? Are the interest payments for one account not based off of having the money resting in an account for a month?

I am not sure how shuffling the money in and then straight out of an account helps ?

Can someone explain it, I am missing something simple I am sure.

Archi_Bald

You are 100% correct that you will not earn interest on money that isn't in an interest paying account.

But you totally misunderstand what the shuffling is about - it isn't some elaborate scheme to generate interest payments out of thin air. What it does is simple: many/most of the interest paying accounts require minimum monthly deposits. These can be made by shuffling some money about, preferably on the same day.

If you look at the T&Cs of the individual accounts, it should all be self-explanatory. There are also threads on all the interest paying accounts on the forum.

Steve_xx

Zola. wrote: »

Does the interest really make this worth it? Are the interest payments for one account not based off of having the money resting in an account for a month?

I am not sure how shuffling the money in and then straight out of an account helps ?

Can someone explain it, I am missing something simple I am sure.

Yes it is worth it. For instance if you had two TSB Classic Plus current accounts containing £2000 each , you can earn 5% interest on each account.

Let's call them TSB Account A and Account B.

In order to get the 5% you have to credit each of the accounts with £500 each month. So, what you do is you log in to your TSB accounts once each month and you transfer £500 from Account A to Account B. As soon as you've done that you transfer £500 from Account B back to Account A. Job done, you've satisfied the requirement from TSB and you will get your 5% interest for that month.

Now, you may also have a LLoyds Club Account with a balance of £5000. This account requires you to deposit £1500 each month in order to get the 4% interest that it pays on balances between 4 and £5000.

Let's call this Lloyds Club Account C.

To satisy the requirement for this LLoyds account you could log in to your TSB Accounts mentioned above and then transfer £1500 from TSB Account A to your LLoyds Club Account C. Now you'll have £6500 in the Lloyds Club Account C. That's no good because they only pay interest on balances upto £5000, so log in to the Lloyds Account C and transfer the £1500 back to TSB Account A.

Is that any clearer for you?