Current Account Switching - advice needed

pgalla13

Current accounts:
1st Direct (with 6% regular saver)
TSB (with 5% regular saver)
2 x Tesco Bank

One of my Tesco Bank accounts has 2 direct debits set up and I'm thinking of switching it to a Halifax Reward account for the £100 bonus and also opening up a brand new Nationwide Flexdirect account to house £2500 of the Tesco Bank funds at 5% for a year.

My first question is will Tesco allow me to switch just one of the Current Accounts I hold with them and leave the other one intact when they receive the switching request from the Halifax?

Secondly, after the switch is complete and assuming the answer to question 1 is yes, will I then be able to open up a new 2nd Tesco Bank current account?

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has held the 2 Tesco Bank current accounts and successfully switched one of them...
Also, if anyone sees any issues with this plan I'd appreciate their comments.

Thanks in advance!

Vortigern

The answer to both questions is yes.

bobobski

I would (and just did) go for option number 3: open a rubbish bank account somewhere else (I chose Natwest), move two direct debits from Tesco to this account, wait for the two direct debits to show up in the account (e.g. if you open it on 1st and your DDs come out on 20th, then wait until 20th) then apply to switch to Halifax.

YorkshireBoy has a point: why do you have DDs on your Tesco accounts? DDs are valuable in the account-switching game and are not required for the Tesco accounts.

Just FYI, my switch incentive has already arrived even though the switch doesn't complete for 4 more days.

pgalla13

bobobski wrote: »

I would (and just did) go for option number 3: open a rubbish bank account somewhere else (I chose Natwest), move two direct debits from Tesco to this account, wait for the two direct debits to show up in the account (e.g. if you open it on 1st and your DDs come out on 20th, then wait until 20th) then apply to switch to Halifax.

YorkshireBoy has a point: why do you have DDs on your Tesco accounts? DDs are valuable in the account-switching game and are not required for the Tesco accounts.

Just FYI, my switch incentive has already arrived even though the switch doesn't complete for 4 more days.

Thanks for the reply.
I set up the direct debits on the Tesco current account to 2 Tesco Internet Saver accounts (£1 a month each) in preparation for doing a switch...

I did consider opening up another current account somewhere else purely to then switch it for incentives, but so long as I can just open up a new 2nd Tesco current account after I've switched one then that would be my preferred option as the application with Tesco is all online and doesn't require any phone calls or visits to branches.

Might then rinse and repeat the process and switch the new 2nd Tesco account! :cool2:

badger09

pgalla13 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.
I set up the direct debits on the Tesco current account to 2 Tesco Internet Saver accounts (£1 a month each) in preparation for doing a switch...

Remarkable forward planning:)

pgalla13 wrote: »

I did consider opening up another current account somewhere else purely to then switch it for incentives, but so long as I can just open up a new 2nd Tesco current account after I've switched one then that would be my preferred option as the application with Tesco is all online and doesn't require any phone calls or visits to branches.
:

Personally, I wouldn't risk losing 2 (or do you have just 1 Tesco?) decent interest paying current accounts when there are so many other options.

pgalla13 wrote: »

Might then rinse and repeat the process and switch the new 2nd Tesco account! :cool2:

I can't remember who it is, but at least one fairly regular poster has said she has done this 2 or 3 times.

pgalla13

badger09 wrote: »

I can't remember who it is, but at least one fairly regular poster has said she has done this 2 or 3 times.

Thanks for the info - much appreciated.

bobobski

pgalla13 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.
I set up the direct debits on the Tesco current account to 2 Tesco Internet Saver accounts (£1 a month each) in preparation for doing a switch...

I did consider opening up another current account somewhere else purely to then switch it for incentives, but so long as I can just open up a new 2nd Tesco current account after I've switched one then that would be my preferred option as the application with Tesco is all online and doesn't require any phone calls or visits to branches.

Might then rinse and repeat the process and switch the new 2nd Tesco account! :cool2:

Fair enough, but my Natwest and Halifax applications were 100% online