Should I switch?

knack92

Poppy9 wrote: »

We have 3 current account and online bank. Halifax is my favourite not only because I get £5 a month but I love their online banking.

We also have a Nationwide Account Flex direct that pays 5% interest on balance up to £2500. Online is okay

And we have a Lloyds classic. We only keep the Lloyds because I've had it over 32 years and our tenants pay rent into it and I pay for BTL things from it. If things go wrong with Lloyds they are terrible to deal with and their online is dreadful.

Is it not the same as Halifax with Lloyds branding?

BargainButtons wrote: »

Those of you who have current accounts with more than one provider - is it easy to transfer money online between accounts? I'm so used to seeing all of my accounts (current, loan, mortgage, savings all with Nationwide) one one page of internet banking and it makes transfers so quick and easy.

Yes it is very easy. Obviously takes a bit longer than an internal transfer because you have to log into multiple services but that's no hardship for the interest you get in return.

colsten

Poppy9 wrote: »

..... Halifax is my favourite not only because I get £5 a month but I love their online banking

.........If things go wrong with Lloyds they are terrible to deal with and their online is dreadful.

Apart from a different colour scheme, Halifax and Lloyds online banking are identical.

MARTYM8`

As has been suggested why doesn't the OP move to the flex plus account.

It is heads and shoulders above any other packaged account even when you factor in the £10 fee:

travel insurance for you and your family world wide who live at your address - and it even applies to pensioners without existing conditions for a small extra payment
full breakdown cover and homestart/relay for your cars - and any one else driving your cars with your permission
one years extended warranty on goods purchased between £50 to £2,000 (including laptops/computers which is unusual) - and you can even backdate that for goods bought 12 months before you take out the account
worldwide mobile phone cover
3% interest on up to £2,500 - which pays for about £7 of the £10 a month if you use that in full and
£80 cashback if you switch in another account to open it via topcashback - even for existing NW current account customers with other current accounts

When you look at how much these would cost on their own - its excellent value.


http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/flexplus/insurances-and-benefits

Poppy9

colsten wrote: »

Apart from a different colour scheme, Halifax and Lloyds online banking are identical.

Mine aren't.

Halifax I can upgrade my ISA on line, open savings accounts, set up new payments, close accounts etc.

Lloyds. Won't let me open a savings account any more, they can't tell me why as I should be able to !!!

Won't let me close down old savings accounts, have to ring.

OH couldn't change his ISA online at end of tie in, so he moved it to Halifax

pollypenny

MARTYM8` wrote: »

As has been suggested why doesn't the OP move to the flex plus account.

It is heads and shoulders above any other packaged account even when you factor in the £10 fee:

travel insurance for you and your family world wide who live at your address - and it even applies to pensioners without existing conditions for a small extra payment
full breakdown cover and homestart/relay for your cars - and any one else driving your cars with your permission
one years extended warranty on goods purchased between £50 to £2,000 (including laptops/computers which is unusual) - and you can even backdate that for goods bought 12 months before you take out the account
worldwide mobile phone cover
3% interest on up to £2,500 - which pays for about £7 of the £10 a month if you use that in full and
£80 cashback if you switch in another account to open it via topcashback - even for existing NW current account customers with other current accounts

When you look at how much these would cost on their own - its excellent value.


http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/flexplus/insurances-and-benefits

Ditto

We've just transferred to a Flex Plus for these benefits, all of which we will use.

We also have a Santander 123 account from which most of the bills are paid, with £20000 savings earning a decent bit each month.

BargainButtons

MARTYM8` wrote: »

As has been suggested why doesn't the OP move to the flex plus account.

It is heads and shoulders above any other packaged account even when you factor in the £10 fee:

travel insurance for you and your family world wide who live at your address - and it even applies to pensioners without existing conditions for a small extra payment
full breakdown cover and homestart/relay for your cars - and any one else driving your cars with your permission
one years extended warranty on goods purchased between £50 to £2,000 (including laptops/computers which is unusual) - and you can even backdate that for goods bought 12 months before you take out the account
worldwide mobile phone cover
3% interest on up to £2,500 - which pays for about £7 of the £10 a month if you use that in full and
£80 cashback if you switch in another account to open it via topcashback - even for existing NW current account customers with other current accounts

Yes, i can see that this is an excellent account however we wouldn't use some of the benefits. We haven't been abroad in years and don't plan to in the foreseeable future and we use our clubcard vouchers to buy breakdown cover. I'm loathe to pay £10 a month for benefits we don't need.

I'm thinking of changing one flex account to the flex direct and switching our other flex account to halifax rewards. The more i read into what our options are the more i think we'd be crazy to stick with what we have!

20aday

BargainButtons wrote: »

Those of you who have current accounts with more than one provider - is it easy to transfer money online between accounts? I'm so used to seeing all of my accounts (current, loan, mortgage, savings all with Nationwide) one one page of internet banking and it makes transfers so quick and easy.

I've held bank accounts with different providers in the past. Aside from having to log into different online servicing accounts as already mentioned within this thread I've found 9 times out of 10 the payment sent has been credited almost instantaneously.

20aday

Poppy9 wrote: »

Mine aren't.

Halifax I can upgrade my ISA on line, open savings accounts, set up new payments, close accounts etc.

Lloyds. Won't let me open a savings account any more, they can't tell me why as I should be able to !!!

Won't let me close down old savings accounts, have to ring.

OH couldn't change his ISA online at end of tie in, so he moved it to Halifax

What kind of savings accounts are they, out of interest?

I think it may be the e-savings account (from memory) of which you can only have five open at any one time but that should've changed last month so you can hold more.

BargainButtons

I've been thinking about this a bit more and am not sure if to have 1 Halifax and 1 flexdirect account or 2 flexdirect accounts?


Our salaries (£2900 per month) get paid into one account then we transfer £1600 for bills into the other account. I was planning on switching the billaccount to Halifax rewards and upgrading our current flex account to flexdirect for our salaries. With the flexdirect offering 5% interest would we be better keeping our bill account with nationwide? We don't have an overdraft on either account so are always in credit.


I don't really understand how the interest is calculated with the Flex direct. Obviously with Halifax we'd get £5 per month plus £125 switching bonus but I don't know if that makes it better than Flexdirect?


Would welcome opinions/advice!

Archi_Bald

FlexDirect interest gets calculated daily, based on the account balance on that day.

If you have £2,000 in your account every day, you get approx 21p interest a day, so around £6.43 a month in a 30-day month. If your balance goes lower, you obviously get less.

Your best solution is where you have the Halifax Reward accounts plus one or more other interest paying accounts. Keep your money in the interest paying current account(s) and once a month just deposit and withdraw the £750 the Halifax accounts require. That way, you get both, the fivers from Halifax and your interest from the other account(s).

As a couple, you can have 3 Halifax accounts - 1 sole each and one joint. They all need £750 a month and 2 DDs each. The DDs are easy to get - as has been mentioned many times over on this forum, you just need a couple of Tesco savings accounts. Each of you should be entitled to the switching bonus, too.