How many bank accounts / savings accounts have you had in your lifetime (so far)

Legacy_user

Hopefully this is the correct place to post this, and I am just curious what with all the talk of switching bank accounts to get bonuses or cashbacks or other benefits how many of you have had "more accounts than hot dinners". I think I have had a good few, but I am sure many of you have had many more.

I have actually stuck with most of my accounts for a very long time. My first bank current account in the early 80s was a student account with Nat West because they offered an Access card as a perk (with a £50 credit limit if I recall correctly). On leaving college and starting work I closed that and got a Girobank account as it was easier to use post offices rather than go into town with a bank branch in it. I also opened a Post Office Investment account to save the house deposit in. I am that the interest rate was 7 or 8% or some other unfeasible percentage at that time. I stuck with Girobank until they packed up and became part of Alliance & Leicester to and moved my account to Smile (again, as banking could be done at the post office). I am still with Smile.

Somewhere in the middle of all that was Abbey National with whom we had a mortgage.

Building societies were a bit different as there were a few more of those, and they had more to tempt me than the banks in terms of interest. My very first account was, I think, a Bridgewater Building Society one opened by my grandfather and is what started me off on my quest to "grow" my money. Years later, once I was earning I regularly scuttled up and down the high street on a regular basis (pre-internet, when picking up leaflets or speaking to someone was the way of finding things out). Without really thinking too hard about it, I think I moved my savings accounts ten or eleven times to get the best rates.

Now we have one "housekeeping" joint current account, a "housekeeping" savings account for "treats and eats" and each have a "personal" current account and I have just one savings account plus some investments.

I am sure many of you can beat this!

eskbanker

These sort of threads usually elicit polarised responses, from (a) weary cynics who don't see the point (but who obviously don't need to read or reply!), or (b) those who are happy to play along - for a preview of what you'll probably get (albeit without the wistful reminiscence factor), see: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5911855/how-many-bank-accounts-do-we-have

Pinklady1992

About 5 right now, the virtual banks like Revolution and Monzo can be convenient.

meer53

I've never counted, never thought there would be a need to know really. I currently have 4.

18cc

in my lifetime i have had 106.5

Mrs_Ryan

I’ve been with virtually all the major banks several times over
My first account was with NatWest (or National Westminster as they were then) as my ex BIL was a manager for them.

I got a teen account with Barclays when I was 16, but I went with HSBC for my student account when I was 18. At some point I switched to Abbey National, I had one of the earliest basic accounts as I worked for them. I was also with Lloyds for a bit, I opened my longest term account with Barclays in 2001.

I switched then to Nationwide and had that account for years- I opened an account with RBS in the meantime but never really used it as it didn’t much meet my needs.

I ran in trouble with Nationwide so I began using my Abbey account again but it was so godawful that I went back to NatWest, who at least gave me a Solo card. They made a massive mess of my account so I told them to shove it (on Christmas Eve ) and that day managed to open an account with Alliance and Leicester.

That lasted me well until they started helping themselves to money from my account to service OH’s delinquent overdraft (even though there was no financial connection, they told me that they could because we lived at the same address! I got well compensated for that and moved my account fairly swiftly to...) Halifax, who I left a couple of years later in favour of Lloyds because they gave me a full current account which Halifax refused to do! However they closed the only local branch I could access so off I went to TSB, who were so awful that I went back to Barclays.
I’m now back where I started with NatWest

[Deleted User]

This many (give or take):
http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~huberty/math5337/groupe/digits.html

veryintrigued

I've as many as there have been threads asking how many

Zero_Sum

In lifetime? Are we including reg savers & fixed term bonds which only last for a fixed period? In lifetime it'll be well over 100

OceanSound

Pinklady1992 wrote: »

....virtual banks like Revolution and Monzo can be convenient.

I've never heard it being called that, but have a funny feeling that is what they were implying.:rotfl:

EssexExile

I've no idea how to find out how many accounts I've had over the years, even if I wanted to. 19 at the moment between me & the wife but we're only amateurs at it compared to others.