ALL eggs in one basket??

HeWhoDares

I'm trying to get better control over my accounts.

I've got too many accounts spread across too many institutes and I need to gain control over where my money is.

With a wife and two kids, at present we have current accounts, savings (including kids savings accounts), ISA, Credit Cards and also other services, so House, Car, Mobile Phone, Travel insurances.

At present, these are split between 12 (yes TWELVE) institutions.

I'd like to see these across 2, maybe 3 institutions.

I see offers for "Get Home and Car Insurance for cheaper" And benefits of linked savings accounts, but don't see comparisons anywhere on the web to compare the full suite of services.

Nationwide or M&S Barclays can offer all of these, but which offers the best full suite?

If you were to put all your eggs in 2 or 3 baskets, which would they be?

Thanks

enthusiasticsaver

Nationwide and TSB offer good regular savers for current account customers so those would be on my list. Insurances I always shop around for so would not commit to one organisation for that. Our main accounts and credit card are with Santander.

Lemonsqueezer78

The problem is, there is a good chance that you will be sacrificing value for (perceived) convenience by simply trying to get all these things "under one roof". Shopping around for the best value insurances, phones, mortgages, current accounts (and so on) will often mean you do have these products with different suppliers. In fact, I would argue that this is the usual state for most people.

I have travel, home insurance, car insurance, mortgage, current account, ISA, mobile and other things - all with different people. However, in reality all that means is I need a nice concertina file to store the paper work, a direct debit set up for each one (which for me comes out on the 1st of the month for pretty much everything) and a very simple Excel spreadsheet - or even just a simple text list of things - on my laptop, just to keep an easily accessible checklist of stuff. That's it - easy.

Nothing to worry about... all the paperwork in one place, all the direct debits set up - and a list of things that I can open up on my home computer any time I want.

Big financial institutions may offer many of these things under one "brand" - but that very seldom means that the day to day dealings you have with these products is actually any easier or more streamlined than if you had them separately with different places. You'll still have separate statements and payments/direct debits to pay for things like phones and insurances even if they are all with the same bank. You'll probably have different telephone numbers to call customer services for most of these things too.

The truth is, it doesn't really make anything less complicated - and you may end up paying substantially more for some products - or taking products less suitable for you, than if you were to shop around for the best deals.

What is it that you find so difficult about having things like Travel, home insurance, mobile phone, Mortgage, current account etc with different providers? I realise when life is busy (and especially when you have kids) and you have little time - it is tempting to try and find way to simplify your life. But to be honest you can do that without changing everything to have it all under one name.

Remember - concertina file for paper work - direct debit - list on your computer. That's it. Job done!

Goldiegirl

HeWhoDares wrote: »

If you were to put all your eggs in 2 or 3 baskets, which would they be?

Thanks

Personally, I wouldn't.


I'm happy to go where the best deals are and any admin that this involves