Question for multiple current account holders

jennifernil

I used to use SOs, but found it tedious and complicated to allow for weekends and BHs, so now mainly do it manually just after the beginning of the month, and sweep up the interest at the same time.

We have between us 5 Reward accounts, 3 BOS Vantage (so far), 6 TSB Classic Plus (and a few old Enhance accounts + 2 regular savers), 3 Club Lloyds (and a few old Vantage/Classic accounts + 2 regular savers), and 1 Santander 123.

Also at present 2 x M&S to feed 2 regular savers, 1 x FD for their regular saver, and 1 x HSBC for the ISA bonus and switching reward.

The M&S and FD are funded by SOs, as are the TSB and Club Lloyds regular savers. These are all set up on the 3 BOS Vantage accounts.

I'm living dangerously and funding all the Halifax and BOS Reward and Vantage accounts internally, similarly the Club Lloyds and TSB Classic Plus accounts as they are all full. One Reward account is our main account into which all pensions are paid.

Interest is sent to Santander, as is any surplus from our main account, plus I send £500 every month to it by SO from our main account to cover the cash-back DDs that are paid from it.

Later in the month I replenish the BOS Vantages from Santander as required.

Sounds more complicated than it really is!

enthusiasticsaver

Thanks for all the responses and I think for now I am going to do the transfers manually and then gradually set up standing orders. Yorkshire Boy I think your advice is good and as soon as the TSB account is fully open I will immediately fill it from the Santander 123 account as obviously 5% is higher than 3%. Will also open regular saver at that point.

colsten

jennifernil wrote: »

I used to use SOs, but found it tedious and complicated to allow for weekends and BHs

If the SOs for an account are for less than the balance in the account, you don't need to pay attention to weekends and bank holidays, or worry about other potential issues. Worst case you could lose a few pence interest if they got out of synch, which the main banks, and Nationwide, haven't done in years. Tesco is slightly different in that they don't shut down for weekends/BHs but they don't need any minimum deposit any longer anyway now.

Also, if you really want to avoid weekends/BHs, you can set up your SO to pay every 4 weeks rather than monthly. That should take care for most months, except perhaps December every few years.

ceredigion

The only advantage I can see in doing it manually is timing the payments at a particular time of the day. (Different thread altogether)
As for SO falling at the weekend or public holidays What is the problem if you have a balance to cover it ? It is only tescos that are out of kilter anyway

planteria

jennifernil wrote: »

...6 TSB Classic Plus...

interesting jennifernil. they told me in-branch that it's only possible to have 1 Sole and 1 Joint..

i don't find cycling manually is a problem. i also tend to be altering each month, for example if i am keen to use a certain debit card to show activity on an account then i will be leaving a bit extra behind in that account. if i automated i'd be spending time altering the automation-which would defeat the object. doing it manually is a way of checking all is fine for me, too:cool:

Archi_Bald

planteria wrote: »

interesting jennifernil. they told me in-branch that it's only possible to have 1 Sole and 1 Joint..

That's been the rules since beginning of this year. Before then, you used to be able to apply for 2 sole and 2 joint, and you are allowed to keep accounts from before the rule change. Early bird, catching fish etc etc

Archi_Bald

Doing all mine, apart from Halifax, by SO. I skim off the interest and cashback manually. Never had any problems.

jennifernil

ceredigion wrote: »

The only advantage I can see in doing it manually is timing the payments at a particular time of the day. (Different thread altogether)
As for SO falling at the weekend or public holidays What is the problem if you have a balance to cover it ? It is only tescos that are out of kilter anyway

Should have given more detail.......

The problematic SOs I was referring to were those that moved the money around between our 5 Reward accounts, where there is of course no balance most of the time.

Since I started doing them manually, it seemed just as easy to do the rest at the same time.

msallen

I used to use SOs but now do it manually so that I can vary the amounts slightly where required (I make a small token debit card payment from each account every month or two; I have credit card stooze minimum payment DDs on some which decrease every month; and currently I also make a number of contactless payments from TSB).

Takes me about 10-15 minutes a month. I start from my main (Santander) account and finish in one of my TSB accounts, then do a final transfer back to Santander to level off the TSB account at a few pence under £2K. They are ordered such that where I have two accounts with the same bank these do not directly fund each other but go through at least one other bank in between. On the way through the chain I either skim off the interest or leave behind enough to cover the DDs/regular savers as I go.

planteria

thank you for updating me Archi.. i just have the 1.. i was a late bird