Simplifying as we get older

ffacoffipawb

Is anyone doing this?

Most of my cash savings are now with NSI and Hargreaves Lansdown active savings.

i have a lump of current accounts that were previously worth having but now probably more admin hassle and I need to consider my wife if she outlives me, which she probably will.

Anyway, this is what I have and my thoughts ...

Main account is First Direct which gets my pension and drawdown. Access to regular saver.

Halifax Reward x 3 so free £6 a month. Probably keep. Not sure.

Club Lloyds for cinema tickets. Probably keep for those alone as they are worth £36 or so.

TSB 1.5% accounts x 3. £22 a year interest on each. Probably kill these as not worth keeping.

Child and Co RBS Rewards, probably close and switch to Santander 123 Lite for better rewards.

Nationwide Flexplus. Probably keep or maybe close and upgrade First Direct.

Nationwide Flexaccount. Probably keep just in case.

Thoughts?

DCFC79

Could earn yourself a bit of extra money by switching an account to Natwest.

ffacoffipawb

DCFC79 said:

Could earn yourself a bit of extra money by switching an account to Natwest.

Got that from RBS last year which means I cannot get the NatWest one.

Tildaplum

I am not sure what your objectives are - from the title of this thread you seem to be wanting to simplify and if that is the case then you probably need to keep the First Direct account and one other as backup and close the rest

If you don't want to simplify but want to continue to get as many benefits as you can then you are doing the right thing already

ffacoffipawb

Tildaplum said:

I am not sure what your objectives are - from the title of this thread you seem to be wanting to simplify and if that is the case then you probably need to keep the First Direct account and one other as backup and close the rest

If you don't want to simplify but want to continue to get as many benefits as you can then you are doing the right thing already

Probably just keep 4.
First Direct
Santander 123 Lite
Club Lloyds
Nationwide Flexaccount

Or just keep 3 and forget the Santander monthly cashbacks. Decisions decisions lol.

SevenOfNine

Similar situation, I've also been considering ways to simplify scattergun savings given that intetest rates are rubbish.

We've decided to SPEND, upgrade holiday flights, £10k for a year school fees for grandson, couple of moles removed that I don't like, private dental treatment for husband - all the things NHS don't bother to sort out if it's not painfully infected. When they've sorted his I've got some plans for mine. If it's frivolous, we've decided "stuff it", pointless being sensible!

veryintrigued

There was a very interesting thread on this subject maybe a couple of years ago.

Am sure it was started by Ken68 but I'm struggling to find it.

I can't see much posted by him recently either.

I hope he is ok.

Yorkshire_Pud

ffacoffipawb said:

Is anyone doing this?

Most of my cash savings are now with NSI and Hargreaves Lansdown active savings.

i have a lump of current accounts that were previously worth having but now probably more admin hassle and I need to consider my wife if she outlives me, which she probably will.

Anyway, this is what I have and my thoughts ...

Main account is First Direct which gets my pension and drawdown. Access to regular saver.

Halifax Reward x 3 so free £6 a month. Probably keep. Not sure.

Club Lloyds for cinema tickets. Probably keep for those alone as they are worth £36 or so.

TSB 1.5% accounts x 3. £22 a year interest on each. Probably kill these as not worth keeping.

Child and Co RBS Rewards, probably close and switch to Santander 123 Lite for better rewards.

Nationwide Flexplus. Probably keep or maybe close and upgrade First Direct.

Nationwide Flexaccount. Probably keep just in case.

Thoughts?

You seem to me to be paying lip service to the idea of simplifying your finances which is sensible, when the real reason is most of the perks and decent incentives have dried up and the accounts are not worth the admin anymore for little or no reward.

If serious you would have no more than two or three current accounts. Anymore and you are just doing what you’ve always done. 

Im also attempting to reduce the number of accounts and mainly failing as I like every bit of extra money but realise that money will probably still be in my accounts when I die.

So just do it one account at a time and see how you feel!

Tildaplum

It would be a good idea to look at each account in turn and work out if the benefits you are getting are worth the hassle

for example the club Lloyds account for the cinema tickets - you might want to consider if it is worth the hassle of paying in £1,500 each month and then out again for a whole year in order to get £36 worth of cinema tickets

you might want to close the account and buy your own tickets

if you don't want to do this then you are not in a simplification mode mindset yet!

YorkshireBoy

For TSB don't look at it as £22 per account. If you put the £4500 in a savings account paying 1.35% you'd lose about £6.75 per year, or £2.25 per account.

ffacoffipawb

YorkshireBoy said:

For TSB don't look at it as £22 per account. If you put the £4500 in a savings account paying 1.35% you'd lose about £6.75 per year, or £2.25 per account.

That is why I said they were not worth keeping.