Turned down for a new bank account.

Readytomakechanges

Hi,
My husband and I are currently attempting the MSE money makeover and attempted to open a new joint current account in order to 'piggy bank' our money, putting our disposable income into that account so we can both easily draw from our disposable income and see how much we have.
Unfortunately, Natwest declined our request for an additional joint current account and I'm not sure why. We both have good credit scores.
Any ideas of why we may have been declined and how we can open the account that we need? It needs to be a joint current account that we can access online and via our phones, with no OD facility.

bradders1983

Readytomakechanges said:

 We both have good credit scores.

First things first, ignore the made up three digit scores straight away, get them out of your heads, no lender sees them and the likes of Experian make them up for marketing purposes.
Secondly, there is a bit of a credit crunch on at the moment, lenders are being more cautious, even with current accounts.
Thirdly, check the DATA in all your credit files. Don't look at the score, it could say five million and it is utterly meaningless. Check it is all correct.

born_again

Do natwest have a limit on the number of joint accounts you can hold?
If it is for your disposable income, why not put it in a joint savings acc?

Thrugelmir

Why do you need a second joint current account with the same bank? 

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Thank goodness I kicked NW into touch 21 years ago!

PRAISETHESUN

What kind of account were you trying to open? There are limits on the number of joint accounts you and your OH can hold depending on account type - the reward account for example only lets you hold one sole and one joint version. 

colsten

I don't know the details about the MSE money makeover but you aren't limited to one bank, and in fact, it's a good idea to have a second (or third etc) account at a completely different bank. You could, for example, try Halifax or Starling or Virgin, or if piggy banking is important to you, a TSB Spend and Save account.

Catplan

colsten said:

I don't know the details about the MSE money makeover but you aren't limited to one bank, and in fact, it's a good idea to have a second (or third etc) account at a completely different bank. You could, for example, try Halifax or Starling or Virgin, or if piggy banking is important to you, a TSB Spend and Save account.

Thanks I didn’t know the tsb spend and save was now available to apply for, hoping to get one to use for a switch incentive.

Readytomakechanges

Thank you for your replies. The account that we already have is a reward account, so maybe we can only have one.
We want to be able to make our spending easy and transparent to one another, without always having to ask each other about every little spend. So we thought if we had a standing order putting our disposable income into a separate joint bank account that we could both see, we'd only spend what was available in that and not a penny more. Our wages would still be paid into and all of our bills would still come out of our main joint account. 

Experian says our credit reports are 'excellent', but even without the report, I can't imagine they'll be bad. Never missed a payment on anything. We both have a history of using and paying back credit. 
Can anyone recommend a bank/account that would be suitable for the above purposes.  Ideally we want no overdraft.

colsten

Readytomakechanges said:

Can anyone recommend a bank/account that would be suitable for the above purposes.  Ideally we want no overdraft.

Any current account that you get accepted for will do the job. If you didn't like the suggestions I made earlier, you could look on the main site for "best bank accounts".

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

If you want spending to be transparent, then like mes and BoPsie, we has only one current account that HAS OUR MONEY paid into it, and we make joint investments from and pay our mortgage.

No hidden cash, and we use money to maximise our money as well.

The optimum word here is OUR!