Top Bank Accounts Discussion Area

Gambit

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Interesting. We had huge problems transfering from Abbey to Halifax. We believed the problem to be Halifax's, but now I'm not too sure...

My experience of Abbey (for both Current Accounts and Credit Cards) is a negative one so I wouldnt be surprised if they screwed up...

glenw

just to re-itterate what has been said by others, read all the small print. I have just called both A&L and Abbey as they appear to be recommended as the top 2 current accounts at the mo. They will only give the offers stated (A&L £100 bonus, Abbey 8% AER) if you complete their switching service. This means all your direct debit,standing orders and salary and closure of your exsisting account.

We are wanting an entirely new account, to run as a joint account along side our current accounts and only wish to transfer some of our DD's and pay in a monthly amount from our current accounts to cover them.

Would it be possible to give a review of the best new NON-SWITCH accounts? (sorry in advance if it available already, i'm newish to this and still finding my way around!)

LongTermLurker

glenw wrote: »

just to re-itterate what has been said by others, read all the small print. I have just called both A&L and Abbey as they appear to be recommended as the top 2 current accounts at the mo. They will only give the offers stated (A&L £100 bonus, Abbey 8% AER) if you complete their switching service. This means all your direct debit,standing orders and salary and closure of your exsisting account.

I used A&L's switching service (which was surprisingly efficient) and you can choose to switch some or all of your DDs, SOs and salary. When you sign up, you will enter your existing CA details; they'll then contact your bank and get a list of all your payments and send you a form to complete, saying whether each payment should be switched or not. I didn't let them switch my salary credit, but did that manually myself once I could see some of the DDs appearing in A&L. Their free overdraft took any worry away. You also select whether they can close your existing account - I didn't.

note - this was for a different offer, but I can't see it being any different. I can't say for Abbey.

glenw

Thanks LTL, I wasn't sure about it so phoned the A&L customer advisers. I was told they had all just received an email about this and to qualify for the £100 bonus all my DD's would need to be switched to them and my salary too.
I'll give them a 2nd call in a bit, too see if I get the same info twice!

Incidently, just looked at Norwich & Peterborough gold account, as they seem highly rated and have a decentish AER. They only require a minimum of 5 DD or SO's to be transfered over.

ginvzt

We opened Nationwide Flexsaver for joint account. Ok, it is not the best interest rate, but you can use your card abroad for free and they are not playing up with bonuses (I think A&L changes the interest rate after a year to something like BoE-1%). I think it is a decent 'no-quibles' account

glenw

just had a call back from A&L, it seems the original advise I was given wasn't right. YOu can still qualify for the £100 bonus if you transfer some of your banking over, We would be transfering between 5 and 10 DD's and paying in more than the ammount needed to count as a salary which they were happy with. I'm off to apply now. thanks longtimelurker for the earlier post, it made me re-call A&L to confirm things

Cloudane

So all this about A&L's big plummet in profits doesn't look good.... hope they're not about to do a Northern Rock on us!

Other than that, no further issues to report. The only weak link in the transition process continues to be HSBC...

busyfool

Hi, my first post. Just in the middle of trying something with A&L - I've had their Premier account for over a year so interest rate has dropped. I rang them and threatened to leave for Abbey (8%). The lady suggested downgrading to the basic account (no interest) for 3 months and then reapplying (with refer a friend - £25 pound thank you - which more or less covers 3 months lost interest) for the Premier direct account and I will then receive 8.5% again. Hope this is of interest/use

rnaza

Have to say the 8% AER is definitely not worth the exteremly frustrating level of customer service at Abbey. Had not heard from the branch I tried to open an account at for a week (originally told me I would hear back in 24hrs), walked in and waited for a represenatative to help me out for an hour, almost flipped when they begain tell people "You need to make an appointment", eventually the response was "the IT systems are down so cant check the status!"; were the IT systems down for the past week?

probably chalk it down to merger problems, but am glad I got a view of their level of service at this point in the process.

celtic_charmer

babydonz wrote: »

Hi All

Im Sorry If Im In The Wrong Post But This Is My 1st Time & In Need Of Help Please

Im Currently In The Process Of Starting My own Business & Would Like To Here Peoples Views On the Best Business Bank Account

Ive Looked Through The Forum Articles & Have Noticed A Few Threads On Banking But Cant see Anything About Business Banking

Many thanks
Donna

I have a business account with the Alliance and Leicester. I'm not sure of the set up now but when I opened my account 2 years ago it was totally free providing you made a payment into the account every month. I'm not sure what the minimum payment was but something like £1000. The interest rate was also pretty good as well.

After 2 years my account swapped over from a new business account to an established one. There was no change in the account numbers or anything else, with the slight exception that the interest rate dropped a little. You got preferencial rates as a new business for the first two years, however it's still a very good rate compaired with the other banks and when you take into account you don't pay for cheques, transfers etc, and you can do it all on line then I've found it to be a doddle.

Alternatively you might want to check out a little known bank - Cater Allen. They were recommended by my accountant as they are supposed to be very business friendly (and I believe that the Queen banks with them - or used to). (If it's good enough for Lizzie, it's good enough for me!)