Incentives to open joint account???

Midgit

Am looking to open a joint account with the SO for household expenses, but to gain any of the opening incentives offered I have to switch ALL my DD's and close my account. Firstly, I want to retain my own account and secondly, I'm using my overdraft and can't afford to pay it back in full. Considered asking SO to switch his as he's not too happy with his current bank, then add me to it, but all the house DD's are mine, so we'd have to change them all manually, but then we'd still be in the same position when he came to open a new personal account....


Does anyone have any bright ideas?

grumbler

What's "SO"?
Switching an overdrawn account is asking for a trouble as the new bank may not offer you sufficient overdraft.
Switching DDs manually isn't a big deal. How many do you have?

Midgit

Significant other!


I don't want to switch, just want a new account and will mover approx. 7 DD's to it. Just annoys me a bit that the offers to new customers are only valid if you're switching a whole account and closing the old one. They're still getting my business and my DD's, but I get no bonus from them cos I'm only transferring some DD's and retaining my old account.


Just wondered if anyone had a way round it.....

YorkshireBoy

Midgit wrote: »

Just annoys me a bit that the offers to new customers are only valid if you're switching a whole account and closing the old one.

Look at it from the bank's point of view...it "annoys" them that there are thousands of people who switch purely for the incentive, and keep their 'main' account elsewhere! Fortunately, there are ways round these things. See below.

Just wondered if anyone had a way round it.....

Open another current account (either with your existing provider or, preferably [due to your O/D usage], a new bank) and switch this to your chosen provider, thereby grabbing the incentive. Then manually transfer your DDs yourself. Just be aware that there's an optimum date in the month to do this, and it most likely won't be the same date for all your DDs. Also be aware that you're not covered for errors, like you are with the CASS.

lufc7

The only way around it would be to open a donor account purely for the purpose of switching to the account you want. Bear in mind some switch incentives require these accounts to have some DD set up first (look through threads for easy ones to do). From the banks point of view the reason they would want you to switch for the incentive is not only do they want your business they also want to take it away from a rival and by making you 'switch' for a incentive they win on both accounts. Hope this helps

grumbler

Midgit wrote: »

Significant other!....

We live and learn...

Do you know that a joint account creates a financial association that can negatively affect the credit history of the part with a better one? Generally, everything can be done with sole accounts. A credit card with a second cardholder can be a good optional extra.

bigadaj

Seems odd to use SO to mean significant other on a bank account thread when it would represent standing order to most people given the nature of the query.