Grocery shopping basic account

Jargraj

My partner and I are looking to open a joint bank account solely for our shared food shopping. We both already have our own current accounts and handle household bills and mortgages separately. 

Such an account would only get £400 paid in monthly, and not have any direct debits set up. We don't want a fee to pay for the account. We commonly shop in Tescos, but do use other supermarkets, especially Co-op.

Are there any basic accounts that offer interest, cashback specifically on supermarket purchases or other forms of reward just for supermarket purchases?

Thanks

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Question. Do you intend the relationship to last? If so, stop missing and get just one joint account and run it together like your life!

Otherwise, just get a simple current account, maybe starling and run from there!

soulsaver

Tesco bank might be good...

Archi_Bald

Cashback is only available for certain Direct Debit bills, at Santander or Natwest/RBS. I don't know of any current account that offers incentives for supermarket purchases, except perhaps the Tesco debit card which collates extra Clubcard points when used in Tesco stores.

The best interest-paying current account for small balances is currently Virgin Money.

NB. The term 'basic account' refers to a special kind of current accounts which are reserved for people with low credit ratings. These accounts have no bells and whistles and don't pay any interest or rewards of any kind.

Neil_Jones

Some credit cards do provide cashback (like Aqua for example, 0.5% on everything you can shove through it - this is capped, though you'd have to spend £20k on it in a year to hit that cap, but I think that's been pulled now?), but current account wise, not really.  Any benefits are more likely going to be on the card side, not the account side.

You could look into maybe something like Santander Retailer Offers, although these change regularly and may or may not include supermarkets.  The other option could be take advantage of things like Clubcard and Nectar and whatever other "loyalty" schemes are on offer.

MovingForwards

NatWest do a reward current account (free). The rewards change and also vary person to person. I always get offered Waitrose although my brother gets Morrisons, which is annoying. I've taken advantage of some of their others occasionally too. The % varies and each £5 can be paid as cash into your account, traded up or donated to charity.

notveryeducated

Don't get a basic bank account if you can get accepted for a regular bank account.

[Deleted User]

I notice that all your other credit arrangements seem to be separate - opening a joint current account will create a financial association that will link most/all of them.

A prepaid payment card or joint savings account (with ATM card) would avoid this.

Jargraj

Thank you for all your responses. 
@dahj I think we will aim to keep my credit rating separate from hers by having a solo account with two cards rather than a joint account as you say. Prepaid cards like FairFX look good for this.

So far I have Tesco Bank, Aqua, Virgin Money and FairFX on my shortlist - I will compile a list of requirements for the accounts and check which is suitable and which would pay the best return if any on supermarket spend over a year in excel.
We need 2 debit cards, online access, no fees, min. monthly pay in less than 400 ideally (though we could transfer in and out again) and no requirement for monthly direct debits (unless standing orders out count). I can check each of these shortlisted accounts against our criteria.

Thank you for your help everyone.

Archi_Bald

@Jargraj The simplest and cheapest account with 2 contactless debit cards is Starling. The account would be owned by one of you, and the second card can be given to anyone, without registering their name with Starling. The account costs nothing, has no pay-in requirements or any DD/SO requirements, is operated with an app, and you can "load" money for the second card in seconds. As it's a no-frills account, you won't get any loyalty points or anything, but you appear to have dropped that requirement now.

https://www.starlingbank.com/features/connected-shopping-card/

lhsecons

I don’t think Tesco Bank are opening new accounts at the moment. The Virgin current account has no additional requirements and you would at least get 2% interest on your money.