Current account for my savings?

missile

You don't need to do anything with your Barclays current account, but if you use Santander to switch your DDs they may close it.

Petula

Hmmm... so as to the advice of keeping Barclay's open? Is it that I am going to have to pay in to *say* 3 current accounts - we'll use Barclays/Santander/TSB for now - giving each a portion of my direct debits to satisfy their requirements?

I best go have a look and see what each requires for DD's and amount paid in per month before I do anything else I'll grab a cuppa and go searching!

ColdIron

From memory:

Santander
1) Pay in £500 per month
2) Pay £2 per month fee
3) Have 2 active DDs, if you use all the ones that qualify for cashback this will offset the fee
4) Keep a minimum balance of £3,000 for the 3% interest

TSB
1) Pay in £500 pcm
2) Make sure you go paperless for statements and all correspondence

If you set up two opposing Standing Orders on the same date for £500 from santander to TSB and vice versa it will run itself. The TSB month starts from the first of the month Jan 1, Feb 1 etc. The Santander month starts from the date you opened the account, say Jan 9, Feb 9 etc. Just make sure you are a few days away from each start to avoid weekend and bank holiday problems

Keep your Barclays account open with anything you want still connected to it, salary, those DDs you didn't switch etc. Keep a minimum balance for your Debit Card, ATM use etc. Remember you didn't want to disclose details of the accounts with lots of cash

Personally I have switched all my DDs to so I don't have to worry about minimum balances

Job done

PS This is no excuse for not reading the T&Cs

badger09

Petula wrote: »

Hmmm... so as to the advice of keeping Barclay's open? Is it that I am going to have to pay in to *say* 3 current accounts - we'll use Barclays/Santander/TSB for now - giving each a portion of my direct debits to satisfy their requirements?

I best go have a look and see what each requires for DD's and amount paid in per month before I do anything else I'll grab a cuppa and go searching!

That really is the best place to start

If you've had your Barclays account for 18 years and it has no 'perks' then it probably doesn't need a minimum monthly deposit, or any DDs - but do check. If you want to keep it so it looks good (stability etc) then simply keep it active by paying in a few ££s once or twice a year, and either use the debit card or for your online purchases, leaving just a small balance the rest of the time.

You can then use TSB & Santander for their 'perks' and to store your savings, simply transferring the monthly funding between them.

M&S is good for the regular saver and the switch bonus, but I wouldn't recommend it for day to day (internet) banking, as their Key Pass thing is a PITA.

Petula

Ok, looks like another hour or two this evening will be spent 'mulling'

I'm taking all of the advice on board, but it does take time to sink in. Cold Iron, thanks so much for setting it out like that, it really helped! :beer:

Will be back when I'm either closer, with another question, or to let you know what I've decided. Thank you again, you've all been really great and it's much appreciated.

colsten

Petula wrote: »

Hmmm... so as to the advice of keeping Barclay's open?

Two possible reasons:

1. you expressed concerns about keeping your savings in your day-to-day current account
2. if you want to apply for credit (mortgage, loan) it will look good to have had an account for 18 years. Naturally, you don't need to use it regularly in order to be able to say you had a current account for 18 years............

AndyPK

your barclays account will only close if you use the switching service.

So don't do that if you want to keep it open.

kidmugsy

I have a friend who likes to keep his savings scattered across accounts that he accesses in different ways: online, telephone, passbook, ATM/chequebook.

He's influenced us a bit: we have one current account where we have neither chequebook nor debit card; we use only online transfers to and from it, plus Direct Debits and Standing Orders. We keep it for the handy interest rate. We have a passbook ISA and a telephone ISA.

Petula

Ah! @ Andy PK

So if I were wanting to keep Barclays, I could go ahead and open the Santander... but not use the switching service? Just contact the 2-3 companies that I want to switch DD to Santander. Is that correct, please?

In the end I would (for now at least) like to have Santander as my 'main' bank as I get some cashback from bills and more interest even at £1,000.

redux

Petula wrote: »

Ok, looks like another hour or two this evening will be spent 'mulling'

I'm taking all of the advice on board, but it does take time to sink in. Cold Iron, thanks so much for setting it out like that, it really helped! :beer:

I opened one of the TSB Classic Plus accounts a couple of weeks ago.

It's as described by Cold Iron, and took just a few minutes online.