Bank Switching Project

Solomio1

Hi,

I currently have these accounts:

Natwest Graduate - Main account, Overdraft in use, salary paid in here, 3 direct debits
HSBC Current account - Used sparingly, 2 direct debits
Santander Current Account - Used sparingly, 2 direct debits.

I want to do this.

Use switching service to close HSBC and open a Nationwide 5% fixed saver account, getting a referral bonus of £100 for me and a friend in the process. Will use this for savings, keep the direct debits there and cycle salary through it as required by T&Cs

Use switching service to close santander and open the TSB Plus account, keeping two direct debits there and doing what T&Cs require to get all the benefits.

So far as I am aware this should work. But any showstoppers people can think of?

Long term goal is to probably use the stuff in the TSB account to continually get switching bonuses all whilst keeping my Natwest graduate account as my real main account.:money:

Thanks, James.

Katiehound

Well for starters the switching service (CASS) is for switching current accounts, so you would need to open the Nationwide current a/c and switch the HSBC into that. Mind you , did that recently and the switch option came up straightaway.
For the switch bonus you need 2 x DDs.
To get the 5% interest (for 1st year only) you need to feed £1k per month

The fixed saver is a different a/c altogether

Zanderman

Solomio1 wrote: »

Use switching service to close HSBC and open a Nationwide 5% fixed saver account, getting a referral bonus of £100 for me and a friend in the process. Will use this for savings, keep the direct debits there and cycle salary through it as required by T&Cs

Use switching service to close santander and open the TSB Plus account, keeping two direct debits there and doing what T&Cs require to get all the benefits.

As Katiehound says, your terminology is a bit wrong. CASS doesn't close and open accounts, it merely switches from one open account to another open account and then closes the first one.

So, to switch, you firstly need to open the extra accounts. Which is nothing to do with switching.

And then, when you have the new accounts, you can switch an old account to them.

Some banks try to streamline new account opening and switching into one process, but actually it is two processes.

Your reference to a " Nationwide 5% fixed saver account" is confusing. You can only switch from and to current accounts, not saver or savings accounts. Perhaps you mean the Nationwide FlexDirect current account, which pays 5% on up to £2.5k in the first 12 months - you can switch to that as it's a current account.. If you mean the Nationwide Regular Saver account, which also pays 5% then you're looking at the worng account, as you can't switch to that.

YorkshireBoy

Just to confuse (but hopefully help!) you further, the FlexDirect rate is fixed (for a year), whereas the Flexclusive regular saver rate is variable.