Bank Account Switching Newbie

trevorplatt

I've been with Lloyds since I was 16 years old (I'm now 33) and I've never switched banks before and I'm not looking to do it regularly, so before I take the plunge I wanted to run my plan by you folks to see if I was missing anything or making any mistakes. Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.
I'm a bar tender and I bring home £160-£220 per week in cash, average ~£750 p/m.
I currently have £3700 in my Lloyds account (and a second current account containing £2), as well as £700 in cash yet to be paid in. I no longer like or trust Lloyds and I haven't felt wanted or valued by them for some time so I've been wanting to switch for a while now. I currently have one Direct Debit, for my mobile phone, but I have a second starting on the 17th of July for my EuroMillions (yeah, I know, but I'm hopeful). I'm also going to start subscribing to Netflix when our 7 Month free trial ends in August.
Having looked on this site it seems as though the TSB Classic Plus (TSB was also recommended to me by a friend) and the Santander 123 may be my best options. My home town has a local branch for both of those banks. The only problem I can see is my lack of direct debits.
So my plan is to transfer £2000 to my Lloyds second account and leave the rest in my current account. Apply for the TSB Classic Plus account after the EuroMillions DD starts and use the second account (containing £2000) for the switching process. Then transfer both the Direct Debits to TSB. I don't think the Netflix DD will start in time for me to get the £100 bonus so is there any other cheap way to set up a DD that will qualify me? What if I pay my £50 p/w rent by DD rather than paying it in cash? Can I pay a DD to another person or does it have to be a company?
When I've got the £100 from TSB I'll use my Lloyds account (which should contain almost £3000 by then) to open the Santander 123 account. Having received the £100 bonus from TSB can I then transfer all the Direct Debits to the Santander account to qualify for the interest and cash back for that account or do I have to maintain 3 DD's at TSB? Moving my Mobile Phone DD to Santander should mean that I get a little bit back, but will Netflix qualify under the TV category?
I can then continue to pay my wages into my Santander account and use that as my primary account and setup a monthly transfer of £500 near the end of the month from Santander to TSB and then back again a few days later. As you can probably gather it's the direct debits that are tripping me up.
Sorry this is so long. I wanted to be as detailed as possible. If you've gotten this far thank you for your time.
pp I also want to start a personal Pension, should this factor into my plan or will I get a good pension account with Santander or TSB?

polymaff

trevorplatt wrote: »

As you can probably gather it's the direct debits that are tripping me up.

Open a couple of Tesco Internet Saver accounts then use these to fulfill your DD requirements by setting up your own DD pulls from the bank accounts to these Tesco accounts - transfer by DD being the method Tesco use to transfer funds in. Very straightforward.

Old_Bill

Bear in mind that the Santander 123 account has a £2 monthly fee. For many this is covered by the cashback earned but obviously that depends on the individual and their spending habits. If you do decide to go for a Santander account, TopCashback currently pay up to £36.75 for new switchers.

jimjames

For the amounts mentioned you'll get low interest on 123 account.


TSB and Tesco accounts would give best rates on up to £8000 although you could use Nationwide for £2500 for 12 months.