Choosing a new bank for someone who gets paid with no tax?

GTR_King

TSB Only need 2 direct Debits for the switch reward.. You can still get 5% interest and cash back.... I have TSB A/C got no DD and still get interest

xylophone

Also, I should add, I only have one direct debit, wish very annoyingly seems to limit my current account options....

A Tesco Internet Saver and a Tesco Instant Access Saver should solve this problem.....

mgdavid

I have 2 x TSB accounts, both pay interest - no DDs on either.

Fryy

Many thanks for the advice all.

I'll take the great advice here. One more question if I may though: Presumably it makes sense to keep switching banks every year to take advantage of the regular saving yearly offers?

ceredigion

Fryy wrote: »

Many thanks for the advice all.

I'll take the great advice here. One more question if I may though: Presumably it makes sense to keep switching banks every year to take advantage of the regular saving yearly offers?

No, when your regular saver matures it will convert in to a standard savings account. Then you open up a new one.

Fryy

Really? So just to clarify:

1) You choose a bank and make an account.
2) You set up things like current accounts, ISAs and credit card accounts with that bank
3) You also set up a regular savings account for a year
4) The regular savings account matures after a year when you can access the money again and the account changes
5) You can simply set up another regular savings account for a year again
6) repeat steps 4 and 5.

Is that right?

Archi_Bald

Roughly, yes. But you don't need an ISA and a credit card in order to get access to 1-year Regular Savers (where a bank offers them). Some banks also offer Regular/Monthly Savers that do not lock the money away for 12 months (TSB, Nationwide). You need to read the T&Cs.

With current interest rates, and with the amounts you are talking about, cash ISAs would be a waste of money. Credit cards: your bank may or may not offer you the best credit card deal.

There is no need, and very often no good reason, to have all your money and accounts with a single bank.

Fryy

Okay so my plan is this:

Apply for a TSB plus account.

IF it is open by 2nd Nov I am eligible for the +£125 bonus and that's great. But I might be too late and I suppose it depends on how long it takes for them to process my application.

In either case, I get the 5% of £2000 from their current account and set up a regular saver of £250 a month.

In addition, once I've got around £11,000, it makes more sense to switch to the Santander 123 scheme even with their new £5 fee. Of course I'll have to wait for the regular saver account to mature after a year, but that's roughly when I expect to have £11,000 saved up anyway.

Does that sound good?

Eco_Miser

Fryy wrote: »

In addition, once I've got around £11,000, it makes more sense to switch to the Santander 123 scheme even with their new £5 fee.

Does that sound good?

NO.

Before considering Santander (unless you've got a load of DDs eligible for cashback), there's Nationwide at 5%, Lloyds at 4%, BoS and Tesco at 3% with NO FEE.

And don't switch, just open additional accounts, that way you keep getting 5% on £2000 (and whatever's in the Monthly Saver), and on another £2500 at nationwide, and 4% on £5000+ at Lloyds, etc.

Fryy

Eco_Miser wrote: »

NO.

Before considering Santander (unless you've got a load of DDs eligible for cashback), there's Nationwide at 5%, Lloyds at 4%, BoS and Tesco at 3% with NO FEE.

And don't switch, just open additional accounts, that way you keep getting 5% on £2000 (and whatever's in the Monthly Saver), and on another £2500 at nationwide, and 4% on £5000+ at Lloyds, etc.

In theory could you not open say 5 different current accounts at different banks with the various % interest rates up to roughly £2000, and meet the "deposit £500 per month into the current account" criteria just by transferring money between them?