Best bank account and Switching

angelking

Hi,

I constantly read about best bank accounts and switching to them to get the incentives. However I need to know something and how to do it.

Assuming I have 1 bank account with 20 DD/SO in it. Example HSBC advance require that I pay 1750£ and switch 2+ DD/SO. If I want to keep both accounts such that I get the HSBC incentive by only switching 2 DD/SO and also not closing my old account how do I go by?

As it means I can select which DD/SO to switch and also be able to open multiple accounts which have this requirement of DD/SO thus obtaining the benefits of those accounts.

colsten

You only get the incentives if you use the receiving bank's Current Account Switch Service, which will automatically close your old account.

If you want to keep your old account, you can set up a new account purely for the purposes, perhaps with your existing bank. Equip that account with the required DDs, then switch it.

Persius57

I'm looking for a bank account for a very small sole trader business (under £4K turnover) and never any more than 15 transactions a month, usually around 10.

Other than using a seperate personal account, anyone know of any bank offering free banking?

Labman20

If you use the banking 7 day switch service it requires all DD/SO are transferred and the old account is closed.

If you want to keep the old account open you'll need to open the HSBC account the old fashioned way. You can then select which DD/SO are transferred over, by teling them you want to transfer some DD.

You should still get the incentive, but I would confirm with HSBC first about this as some now say you must use the 7 day switch to get the incentive to stop Tarts like me cashing in left right and centre.

I did this with Halifax to get the £100 when we opened a Joint account and wanted to keep my First Direct open as my main account.

As it will be outside of the 7 day switch guarantee though it may take some time to sort, so make sure you have enough money in both accounts to cover any debits.
Also, you will not be covered by any of the guarantee rules for missed payments, direct debits, etc. So watch those accounts like a hawk until you are happy everything is up and running ok.

Whatever you decide, I think go into a branch, tell HSBC what you want to do and let them work out the simplest solution.

soulsaver

You need to either ask HSBC/check their incentive eligibility terms - it's no good relying on another bank's terms as a yard stick as the incentives eligibility is possibly different.
Safest way is open another current ac (if you don't have ones doing nothing, like LLoyds vantage multiple accounts or Santanders etc) and transfer the DDs you're happy to move, to them; then do the HSBC incentive switch.

Zanderman

Persius57 wrote: »

I'm looking for a bank account for a very small sole trader business (under £4K turnover) and never any more than 15 transactions a month, usually around 10.

Other than using a seperate personal account, anyone know of any bank offering free banking?

You're not really in the right thread for this question. Do a search for business banking threads, and read the MSE article here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/small-business#acc .

Note that that article suggests using a personal account 'if you can' but be very wary of using a personal account for business banking - you will, in most cases, be breaking the account's T&C and the bank might simply close the account if it thinks you're mis-using it.