How many current accounts?

joe_mcclaine

Two words ...

Interest.

zolablue25

debbie_debt wrote: »

For those who've got multiple accounts across different banks - what do you find are the benefits of this? I piggy-bank and have 4 current accounts, but have them all with Natwest so everything is in one place. Am I being naive??

Given the threads along the lines of "Bank X have frozen my accounts and won't talk to me about it" I think having all of your accounts with one bank is a not a great idea.

ceredigion

joe_mcclaine wrote: »

Two words ...

Interest.

How many words

joe_mcclaine

ceredigion wrote: »

How many words

Humour not your strong point then?

Fair dues.

Noted.

isingh1

The idea is to gain interest...to compound that interest

cosmicrichie

littlej0hn wrote: »

With all the benefits of switching around at the moment I see a lot of people have multiple accounts.

How many have you guys got? and what total return are you getting p/m 7 p/a?

I have only ever had the one bank account (a Santander current account not 123 as the Mrs pays the bills that get cashback) until yesterday when I applied for the TSB classic paying 5% interest on £2K and also a NatWest reward account paying 3% on household direct debits.

So I've now tripled my current account haul and am wondering to what effect it may have on my credit score if I was to have even more? I am reluctant to switch my Santander current account at the moment as I have a decent overdraft which I rarely enter (so good for credit score) and I don't currently have any issues with Santander.

I know I could be missing out on a few hundred by not switching it, but by opening the other two accounts it will give me the flexibility to switch those. If I was to switch my main account would I be likely to get offered a similar overdraft I currently have as the other two accounts only offered my less than half?

New to this but 2016 is all about getting super organised with the finances!

I currently have 13 current accounts, having closed some unused ones recently due to an upcoming mortgage application. As long as you don't apply for an overdraft then it's pretty easy to get accepted for current accounts even with multiple searches if your general financial situation is good.

For instance I just looked at mine and in the space of a year I opened 16 current accounts, got accepted for 3 credit cards and also rejected for 3 credit cards. Also in the space of one month I opened 7 current accounts across 3 different banks and was also accepted for 2 credit cards.

So in essence if you want to open multiple current accounts in a short period you shouldn't have any problem but obviously it would affect your ability regarding loans, credit cards and mortgages.

newfoundglory

I've only got 8 current accounts

1 HSBC
1 RBS/Child & Co
1 Halifax
1 Lloyds Bank
1 Santander
1 TSB
1 Virgin Money
1 Nationwide

enthusiasticsaver

Just been on a current account opening and switching spree and one week ago I had 6 current accounts and now I have 10 having added First Direct, Club Lloyds, BOS Vantage and a second Tesco to my haul. I will be losing one though when my Santander 123 is switched to FD but also adding a further BOS in a few weeks.

Dan83

I've just opened another 4 this week, so now total 11

Halifax x2
Lloyds x2
Tesco x2 (+4 saving accounts)
HSBC X1
TSB x1
Nationwide x1
Barclays x1
Co-op X1

enthusiasticsaver

debbie_debt wrote: »

For those who've got multiple accounts across different banks - what do you find are the benefits of this? I piggy-bank and have 4 current accounts, but have them all with Natwest so everything is in one place. Am I being naive??

If you have savings then using multiple current accounts means getting a reasonable rate of interest. Rare to find a savings account paying more than 1% and using current accounts and where possible linked regular savers you can get 5-6%. Also it is not a good idea to just be with one bank in case there is a massive system failure. This happened with nat west a few years ago and none of their it systems worked for about 3-5 days. In these days of electronic banking it is so easy to open and maintain accounts so no excuse really not to move around.