Switching from one bank to another

MoneyForNothing

Hi,

I currently do all my personal banking with Barclays and have done for several years, however i am considering moving to another bank which offers a better current account and better savings options due to the introductory bonuses over the course of one year from opening.

The question i want to know is should i completely move from Barclays to the other bank and close my accounts at Barclays.
Or
Open a current account and savings account with the other bank, allowing me to pay my wage into and gain advantage of their bonuses but leave my Barclays accounts open.

If i was to leave my Barclays accounts open i realise an open current/credit card account with little activity is not going to benefit my credit rating, however i have had a good banking relationship with Barclays and i would like to remain with them. My problem at the moment is Barclays interest rates as i am getting very little/the most basic benefit on my money.

Thankyou.

Paul_1977

MoneyForNothing wrote: »

Hi,

I currently do all my personal banking with Barclays and have done for several years, however i am considering moving to another bank which offers a better current account and better savings options due to the introductory bonuses over the course of one year from opening.

The question i want to know is should i completely move from Barclays to the other bank and close my accounts at Barclays.
Or
Open a current account and savings account with the other bank, allowing me to pay my wage into and gain advantage of their bonuses but leave my Barclays accounts open.

If i was to leave my Barclays accounts open i realise an open current/credit card account with little activity is not going to benefit my credit rating, however i have had a good banking relationship with Barclays and i would like to remain with them. My problem at the moment is Barclays interest rates as i am getting very little/the most basic benefit on my money.

Thankyou.

Don't worry about your credit rating, I have had many accounts and closed them, it did not have any bearing on it really.

I believe if you go for a mortgage they will look at how long you have held accounts etc, but its more to do with credit accounts.

There is no harm in leaving the account open, as long as you monitor it to make sure it does not go overdrawn etc, personally I close accounts as I don't want the hassle/worry of the accounts going overdrawn and me not knowing.

What bank are you moving to out of interest? Personally I would just use the switch service.

MoneyForNothing

Considering moving to TSB.
I have looked at all the banks in my town and TSB are offering the best rates out of all of them.
I have spoken to a couple of friends and they have been satisfied with TSB and have had no issues with them.

colsten

MoneyForNothing wrote: »

..........however i have had a good banking relationship with Barclays and i would like to remain with them.

Don't be mistaken, Barclays have no relationship with you. You are just a number to them. That's the same for all banks.

MoneyForNothing wrote: »

My problem at the moment is Barclays interest rates as i am getting very little/the most basic benefit on my money.

I don't call it a good relationship if they borrow your money at 0% and lend it out at a massive profit to themselves!

The only reason for keeping a Barclays account that you had for several years is so you can say you had a current account with the same bank for X years. This may or may not be of value to you.

There are quite a few banks that pay you for switching to them - e.g. Halifax pay you £100 for it. You may also qualify for the monthly £5 at Halifax.

There are other switch deals, and banks offering interest paying accounts that might be more suitable for your needs. Literally all of them pay you more money one way or the other than Barclays do.

Opening one or more additional current accounts is easy to do, as is account switching using the current account switch service.

AnotherJoe

Its not necessary to pay your salary in, (in most cases). You can get the high interest rate by moving money into and out of accounts*, without needing to pay your salary in. Unless its one of a few where you do need to in which case, I'd just switch completely and then get the sign up bonus as well.

* eg S123 needs £500 a month paying in. I do that but pay out £500 as well so it remains around £20k.

YorkshireBoy

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Its not necessary to pay your salary in, (in most cases). You can get the high interest rate by moving money into and out of accounts*, without needing to pay your salary in. Unless its one of a few where you do need to in which case, I'd just switch completely and then get the sign up bonus as well.

* eg S123 needs £500 a month paying in. I do that but pay out £500 as well so it remains around £20k.

Could you give a couple of examples of banks who stipulate you must pay in a salary?

Paul_1977

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Could you give a couple of examples of banks who stipulate you must pay in a salary?

I believe Handelsbanken require you to.

However perhaps its more a case of bank staff suggesting salary has to be paid in, but its not an official requirement of the account.

YorkshireBoy

Paul_1977 wrote: »

I believe Handelsbanken require you to.

Perhaps I should have been more clear.

Are there any banks, let alone "a few", offering either a "high interest rate" or a "sign up bonus" who also require a mandated salary funding the account in order to receive said "high interest rate" or "sign up bonus".

AnotherJoe

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Could you give a couple of examples of banks who stipulate you must pay in a salary?

Nope but I'm sure I've seen it required in one or two.

Paul_1977

I cannot find any account which state it MUST be your salary. Only "You must pay your salary (or equivalent)"

AnotherJoe

Paul_1977 wrote: »

I cannot find any account which state it MUST be your salary. Only "You must pay your salary (or equivalent)"

Thats weird. How would you provably do that since they dont know what your salary is unless its paid in directly?

Do they perhaps mean "your main source of income" ?

In any case, thats an example. (RBS black account, correct?) They do also say you must use it as your "main bank account" which is somewhat subjective but since they are the judge of that I suppose they dont care about that.