Top Bank Accounts Discussion Area

jimmycam

Barclays is best. Period.

Lloyds Halifax Santandair Nachinwide NaktWestt Ministerial Bank, RBS, and HSBC (Hong Kong shanghai Banking club) are all utter rubbish ran by old fogies.

Metro, Atom, Monese are just ran by a jumped up 17 year old in his mother’s spare bedroom in Bolton.

camaj

I'm going to switch an old account to Nationwide and I've just set up 2 DD's to qualify for the £100 incentive. They say it takes 10 working days but I can see them listed in the online banking section of my existing account. Is it safe to start the switch?

Also they ask you to open an account before starting the switch, does anyone know if there's a time limit between opening the nationwide account and starting the switch or do they not care as long as it's before the 90 day window expires? Doesn't say in the T&C's

YorkshireBoy

camaj wrote: »

I'm going to switch an old account to Nationwide and I've just set up 2 DD's to qualify for the £100 incentive. They say it takes 10 working days but I can see them listed in the online banking section of my existing account. Is it safe to start the switch?

Wherever possible I'd let them pay out at least once before initiating the switch.

Also they ask you to open an account before starting the switch, does anyone know if there's a time limit between opening the nationwide account and starting the switch or do they not care as long as it's before the 90 day window expires? Doesn't say in the T&C's

Condition 7, step 2 is all you get. So from that, one can deduce that there isn't...only that it completes within the specified timescale.

eskbanker

Dewpoint wrote: »

I suspect MSE pushes FD because they get a healthy kick-back from the links and advertising. That for me devalues MSE and often makes me suspicious of their advice.

To be fair to MSE, they're quite open about their use of paid affiliate links (from many institutions), in the How this site is financed link at the foot of each page on here, where they (unsurprisingly!) deny that this affects editorial policy....

I'm not convinced it's accurate to say that "MSE keep banging on about FD bank" either - FD do keep topping the bi-annual customer service polls (with a disproportionate volume of contributions) but that's hardly MSE's (direct) doing, and 'very popular' definitely doesn't translate into 'quantifiably best', as the Daily Mail and Apple clearly demonstrate!

eskbanker

jimmycam wrote: »

Barclays is best. Period.

Beginning to smell a bit of a rat here when seeing very similar posting style to another poster with a tendency to launch meaningless polls and other posts that bear only passing resemblance to the real world....

gettinnerdy wrote: »

Barclaycard is best. Fact.

YorkshireBoy

eskbanker wrote: »

Beginning to smell a bit of a rat here when seeing very similar posting style to another poster with a tendency to launch meaningless polls and other posts that bear only passing resemblance to the real world....

It's quicker to hit the spam button than to read (both/all) their posts...and a whole lot more satisfying.

camaj

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Wherever possible I'd let them pay out at least once before initiating the switch.

Are you aware of that ever being an issue or just to be cautious?

YorkshireBoy

camaj wrote: »

Are you aware of that ever being an issue or just to be cautious?

It's been reported as a problem previously on here, although I can't remember which bank was involved.

Jima

I have been with Santander for some time, when the interest rate was 3%. Now with the interest at 1.5% and the charge at £5 per month I am thinking of closing two accounts and putting the money into Birmingham & Midshires at 1.45%.
Santander £20000 at 1.5% =£300 - 12 x £5 = £240. BM £20000 at 1.45% = £290.

Kim_13

Jima wrote: »

I have been with Santander for some time, when the interest rate was 3%. Now with the interest at 1.5% and the charge at £5 per month I am thinking of closing two accounts and putting the money into Birmingham & Midshires at 1.45%.
Santander £20000 at 1.5% =£300 - 12 x £5 = £240. BM £20000 at 1.45% = £290.

Increasing numbers of posters have been doing exactly this, especially as the 123 Lite/Natwest Reward mean that they can still earn cash back on their household bills.

Santander 123 Lite pays the same rates of cashback on bills as your existing version, but for a lower monthly fee of £1. If this is worth it to you, you could simply downgrade one of the accounts. This would allow you to keep a Regular Saver earning 5%, if you have one. Natwest Reward pays 2% Cashback on bills for £2 per month, if you prefer (though beware the higher minimum pay in of £1,500.)

You may be able to switch the second account for an incentive; have a look at this article and see if there are any you could qualify for: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts