How long should I leave it before applying for yet another current account?

Snakey

I might've got a bit carried away earlier this year... new accounts with Halifax and M&S and an application to HSBC, with two sacrificial accounts with Santander so that I could switch.

The HSBC application was the most recent one and it got rejected, and the second Santander one (applied for at the same time) came back OK but with a line saying that if I'd applied for an overdraft (don't think I did) then the overdraft had not been accepted.

So I'm guessing I've done too much too quickly and it's set off some warning bells somewhere. Fair enough.

Now it's a month or so later, and I've decided to give this contactless lark a try (I want to go cashless, and also get rid of my Oyster card), and I think TSB will be the best as it has cashback on contactless spend as well as current account interest.

Should I just apply and see what happens? Or wait to let the previous applications "settle" - if so, for how long?

kingrulzuk

I applied TSB, Nationwide and Tesco bank account last month and had no problem.
This month I applied for RBS and it was up and running in a week
next month will be Lloyds

colsten

HSBC are a bit picky, so I wouldn't be too concerned about the rejection. If your credit file looks ok, you could go ahead and apply for the TSB account straight away. Your chances of getting accepted will be higher if you don't ask for on overdraft.

Anthorn

TSB became picky some time ago and I had to get a Classic first and then upgraded it to Classic Plus. HSBC is picky too and FD is the pickiest of the lot. I never succeeded in opening a FD current account. Barclays gave me a current account but reacted with horror when I applied for a credit card.

Overall, the easiest is Natwest Select and any bank in Lloyds Banking Group.

As explained previously, you have a better chance if you don't apply for an overdraft.

[Deleted User]

I've opened the following current accounts since Jan 2016. No difficulty with any of them, but no overdrafts applied for:-

January: HSBC
February: TSB Classic Plus, Halifax Reward
March: M and S Bank, First Direct
May: Co-op Bank, Nationwide FlexDirect
June: Club Lloyds, three B of S Vantage accounts

(Total=11 current accounts)

In addition to the above, I opened 2 Tesco current accounts in October 2015 and 4 Tesco current accounts between Jan and May 2016 (total of 6, of which 4 were sacrificed for various switches).

kingrulzuk

Among all the accounts I have:
Nationwide took only 2 weeks from the day I applied.
RBS account took 1 week
Tesco took nearly a month
TSB took 4 weeks as they made a mistake and blamed it on me.


So next month I will see how long Lloyds account take