Will getting a basic bank account affect a good credit rating?

Richw82

Hi all, this is perhaps a strange/silly question seeing as basic bank accounts serve to help out those with a poor credit rating, but could they have an adverse affect for someone such as myself who already has a good rating?

My situation is that I'm currently unemployed (left my job recently to spend some quality time with my 1 yr old son following my wife's return to work after maternity leave), and want to open up a second bank account solely to do some matched betting whilst not potentially affecting the mortgage application I'll be taking out in a couple of months.

A basic account will suffice for me, as I won't be withdrawing from the account and don't want to risk being turned down for a current account due to not currently earning, but will it somehow mark me out as being less credit worthy than I am right now/ reduce my rating?

Cheers in advance for any replies :beer:

bigadaj

Wouldn't have thought so.

My understanding is that you apply for a standard account and if you don't qualify they should offer you a basic account instead.

As you already have an account then it's possible they may not offer you a basic account as these are generally loss making and the banks are effectively forced to offer them by government pressure and arguably PR.

Anthorn

As stated in the post above, some banks only offer a basic bank account if they cannot offer one of their other current accounts. The exception is the Virgin Money Essential Current Account. The downside is that applications are done in a Virgin Money Store and you need an appointment so a local Virgin Money Store might be handy.
http://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/current-account/essential-current-account.jsp

Prospective Lenders won't know you have a basic bank account so unlikely to affect your credit. Possibly the only effect might be that you won't have a credit limit (overdraft) on the account and some lenders might penalise you due to that but not to any great degree.

JuicyJesus

Be aware that some banks restrict lending if you have a basic bank account e.g. HSBC won't offer you a personal loan or credit card if you have one of theirs.

Other banks/institutions will neither know or care what kind of bank account you have. My Co-op account could be a Cashminder as far as Amex are concerned, so long as they can take their DD from it they don't give a toss.