Is having 2 current accounts a good idea??

colsten

Savings accounts are a really bad place to keep your spare cash in these days as the interest they pay is much worse than the interest you get in some current accounts. How much do you keep in savings?

colsten

TheEffect wrote: »

I've just opened a second current account with HSBC (already have an Advance account).

I have lots of current accounts myself, incl. an HSBC Advance. It never occurred to me that having a second current account with HSBC would have merits - what am I missing?

TheEffect

colsten wrote: »

I have lots of current accounts myself, incl. an HSBC Advance. It never occurred to me that having a second current account with HSBC would have merits - what am I missing?

Nothing. I cannot use my old HSBC account with PayPal (long story). I opened a new account to mainly use with eBay/PayPal.

I'm not in a position to save at the moment (paying off debt) otherwise I'd probably move to a bank that pays some interest.

colsten

Ah right, thanks. Did you consider a Halifax Reward (£60 a year) or a Santander 123 (for DD cashback), or both? Could help you paying back your debts.

Now that you have that second HSBC account, you could even use it to start account switching - there's a total of £550 on offer at present, more if you go via Quidco. Takes a bit of work but it is quite easy money.

TheEffect

colsten wrote: »

Ah right, thanks. Did you consider a Halifax Reward (£60 a year) or a Santander 123 (for DD cashback), or both? Could help you paying back your debts.

Now that you have that second HSBC account, you could even use it to start account switching - there's a total of £550 on offer at present, more if you go via Quidco. Takes a bit of work but it is quite easy money.

Santander 123 doesn't work out that great for me, as I live with my parents so do not have many bills (just pay them direct). Could move to Halifax (but have already had the £100 switch from them a year or so ago).

I like HSBC at the moment as they have a branch right next to my work, and their 6% regular saver isn't too bad either for when I do start to save something.

licsa

As others said you can use savings accounts (with your main bank) for budgeting purposes.

I tried two bank accounts at some point, one for bills and one for spending, but it didn't work for me, too much hassle with transferring money around and also managed to screw up some payments at some point. I prefer having everything in one place, most of my bills are paid by DD around the 1st of each month and I know exactly where I stand after that.

GTR_King

Yh I agree with wot ur saying but wanna try it out

CKhalvashi

TheEffect wrote: »

Santander 123 doesn't work out that great for me, as I live with my parents so do not have many bills (just pay them direct). Could move to Halifax (but have already had the £100 switch from them a year or so ago).

I like HSBC at the moment as they have a branch right next to my work, and their 6% regular saver isn't too bad either for when I do start to save something.

Could you not offer to pay their bills for them, with them reimbursing you/giving the money from the rent? This is advice I've given in the past to someone in similar situation.

The regular saver for me is 6%, I think for the 'basic' account, it's 4%, but don't quote me on this.

I've stayed with HSBC as a main bank largely due to the cheap international transfers (£4 + 2.75%), but I do appreciate this isn't useful for most.

MikeMouse

I keep two accounts. The second one is for occasional betting so it keeps these transactions off my main account - lenders sometimes don't like to see betting on statements so it keeps it out of sight.

Plus handy of one bank had an outage so I am not stuck

GTR_King

Thanks for your reply will think about it