Not well known Banks

gesdt50

Martin has pointed out that Marcus from Goldman Sachs has dropped their rates & suggested some alternatives like,
Arbuthnot Direct 1.86% Annually £10,000/£250,000

Habib Bank Zurich UK 1.85% Annually £1,000/£1m

Smart Save 1.85% Annually £10,000/£85,000

FirstSave 2% Monthly or annually (1) £1,000/£2m

Access Bank UK 2% Annually £5,000/£500,000

Martin usually does a yearly review of banks for customer service.Does anyone please know if any of these banks or reliable & relatively easy to deal with ?

londoninvestor

gesdt50 wrote: »

Martin has pointed out that Marcus from Goldman Sachs has dropped their rates & suggested some alternatives

No experience with any of those banks, but just to point out that the accounts you list involve tying your money up for 1 or 2 years. They aren't like-for-like comparisons to Marcus, which is an instant-access account.

If someone would have opted for Marcus at 1.50% in preference to a term deposit, they probably ought to prefer Marcus at 1.45% (or Cynergy at 1.45% or Principality at 1.43%) to a term deposit too...

george4064

Also, many people use the term ‘Challenger Banks’ which is a bit easier than your way!

Unfortunately I have no experience with any of those challenger banks so can’t comment on that front.

System

george4064 wrote: »

Also, many people use the term ‘Challenger Banks’ which is a bit easier than your way!

Would you use the expression challenger bank to describe a bank that entered the UK market in 1974?: "Habib Bank Zurich plc began operations in the United Kingdom in 1974."
https://www.habibbank.com/uk/home/ukHome.html

EthicsGradient

I had a fixed term bond with FirstSave, and was happy enough with that to open a new one with them recently. Being bonds, there wasn't much customer service involved, but what there was happened fine. They are a brand of the First Bank of Nigeria, but the accounts are FSCS protected.