Bank of Scotland Vantage - purpose of account?

lufc7

Two of mine and my wife's TSB accounts were opened on line and we answered the question purpose of account (or similar) 'Savings' and it didn't seem to affect the applications and both were opened straight away. Then our joint was opened up in branch and again we said it was for savings, they didn't bat an eyelid, and it was again opened with no issues.

KJSmith

Archi_Bald wrote: »

If the question doesn't affect the application, or applications from others in the future, why would it be asked?

It's so they can get an idea of the expected transactional behaviour of the account. This is one of the controls they use to comply with KYC and AML requirements.
At present, this question isn't asked for any other reason.

For example, if 50%+ (or may be a lot fewer) of a bank's applicants say they want a current account for savings, do you really think the bank would say alright, phew they aren't money launderers and we also love all those customers who apply for unprofitable accounts.

Personally, it's not my concern.

Professionally, a load of accounts which demonstrate a completely different usage to their stated purpose would end up incurring the bank costs that are greater than a load of unprofitable accounts.

djpailo

I love that people can regularly say that "we don't know for sure how current account applications" can affect your credit rating, but then on the other hand, can say with near certainty that putting down "savings" instead of "paying bills" has any impact on the application itself - even though in both cases there is absolutely no evident to say either way what is happening and everything is based on a guess.

The fact is, we don't know and it's better to be honest on an application form.

Archi_Bald

What's wrong about saying the purpose of the account is paying bills, when the purpose of the account is to pay bills? Nobody has asked whether the bills will be paid directly from the account, and nobody has given wrong or dishonest information.

It's quite clear that no bank is interested in unprofitable customers. A current account customer who just uses the account as a savings account is expensive for the bank and probably makes then no profit, or just a tiny one that evaporates after all costs and taxes are accounted for. By all means, continue to tell banks that you want to use the current accounts as savings accounts but don't be surprised if / when you get turned down.

KJSmith

djpailo wrote: »

I love that people can regularly say that "we don't know for sure how current account applications" can affect your credit rating, but then on the other hand, can say with near certainty that putting down "savings" instead of "paying bills" has any impact on the application itself - even though in both cases there is absolutely no evident to say either way what is happening and everything is based on a guess.

The fact is, we don't know and it's better to be honest on an application form.

There are plenty of bank employees on this forum that will know with certainty the answers to some questions that get asked and they are not just guessing.

I agree with the last bit you said though.

KJSmith

Archi_Bald wrote: »

What's wrong about saying the purpose of the account is paying bills, when the purpose of the account is to pay bills? Nobody has asked whether the bills will be paid directly from the account, and nobody has given wrong or dishonest information.

It's quite clear that no bank is interested in unprofitable customers. A current account customer who just uses the account as a savings account is expensive for the bank and probably makes then no profit, or just a tiny one that evaporates after all costs and taxes are accounted for. By all means, continue to tell banks that you want to use the current accounts as savings accounts but don't be surprised if / when you get turned down.

When the main purpose of the account is to pay bills then there is nothing wrong with stating this as the purpose. However, that isn't what's being described in this thread (paying bills ≠ savings).

That's a very simple view on the situation. Bank of Scotland has plenty of data to go on and presently they do not see the need to decline current account applications when the main purpose is stated as savings.

Kernel_Sanders

Archi_Bald wrote: »

It's quite clear that no bank is interested in unprofitable customers. A current account customer who just uses the account as a savings account is expensive for the bank and probably makes then no profit, or just a tiny one that evaporates after all costs and taxes are accounted for.

If that was so then they wouldn't let you have three, would they.

Archi_Bald wrote: »

What's wrong about saying the purpose of the account is paying bills, when the purpose of the account is to pay bills? Nobody has asked whether the bills will be paid directly from the account, and nobody has given wrong or dishonest information.

But if you have a second or third account then they don't expect you to spread your outgoings amongst them. There's no reason to have more than one account for everyday banking, therefore it's quite logical that the others are going to be for savings. My mother chose 'savings' for her second and third ones and I did for my second. It never occurred to me that there might be any issues doing this!

System

I'd bet that 95% of BOS current account applications, made by people outside Scotland, are going to savers.

Seems to me, they could easily require branch based apps from these addresses outside Scotland, but leave that loophole wide open

enthusiasticsaver

I opened a BOS Vantage account online yesterday and put savings as the purpose. Did not affect the application at all and it went straight through and offered me the Vantage option. I puzzled over what branch to choose though

where_are_we

Archi - no wonder that you are one of the "Top Dogs" on this show. You are correct that savings eventually go to paying the bills! I am now in the mid teens with this current account "malarky" and have only ever been refused once despite ticking "savings" every time. I have thought about "lying" because there is no profit in it for them if I use it as a savings account, but my "choir boy" upbringing would make me feel guilty!