What’s your financial setup

colsten

jbrassy said:

colsten said:

eskbanker said:

jbrassy said:
Matched betting. Something that's definitely worth looking into and isn't mentioned a lot on this forum.

There was a dedicated matched betting board but it was removed in the last cull....

WOW. Didn't realise this board had got the chop. It was the most profitable board by a mile for me, back in the days of £100 to £200 free bets that you could repeat almost ad infinitum. It kept me busy and in clover for a number of years, before the last bookie cordoned on to what people were doing and more or less stopped the gravy train. Very fond memories......

The matched betting gravy train is still running. However, it sounds like you need to sign up to a dedicated website such as Profit Accumulator or Odds Monkey. If anyone wants a referral code, feel free to private message me. 

Thank you, I have my own (not for sale or subscription) arb finder etc, vastly superior to the ones you mention. Though I have retired a few years ago from everything that looks remotely like work 😎

sonofmerton

Its_just_Barry said:

Hey everyone,

Looking for ideas as to how everyone has set up there finances? I currently have everything in the one bank (Starling), my salary, bills, saving pots and my emergency fund.

I really want to keep things simple but also want to keep things separate so I don’t get mixed up with things.

How many accounts do you have, banks you use, recommended banks, purpose for each bank and do you use credit cards?

I’m just trying to sort my finances out and would love to hear everyone’s financial setup?!

Thank you in advance 😁

never have just 1 bank account. banks now have a habit of suspending accounts if they think the account holder is up to no good. this means quite often the customer then has no access to any money in the interim. someone i know waited nearly 7 weeks to get their account back.

another reason are systems going down/being hacked. it happens. also....the other day went to park in the evening. the only option is pay by card using contactless or pin. the card didn't work. no one around to help. so i used one of my other cards, problem solved. it turned out the chip was playing up so new card on its way. imagine the scenario if i had no other card. trying to get out of a parking fine.....'my card didn't work' would be a non plausible excuse.

i have 3 current accounts one which uses visa debit and two which uses mastercard. all three banks are unconnected with each other (if part of the same company both cards would likely be inoperative at the same time). i also have an online only savings accounts and premium bonds. no money under the floorboards though. i did work with someone who hid their money in the freezer. 

Mrs_Ryan

I’ve got two current accounts- both totally unconnected to each other. One Visa Debit, one Mastercard. Salary goes into NatWest but DD’s come out of Metro (long story)
Metro used to be my main account but I grew fed up of their sluggishness when it came to payments in and also their habit of suspending the card when it hits a certain amount of transactions in a day. 

Also I don’t live near a ‘store’ so I use it as an online account; I kept a high street account (NatWest) to pay in cash and cheques. NatWest are a bit quicker than Metro when it comes to payments and don’t suspend the card after x amount of transactions. 

I like the app as well. 

[Deleted User]

I do the following: 

1. Bank of Scotland Vantage account - Main current account, I also have a regular saver here. I grew up in Scotland so I've had accounts here for decades.

2. Virgin Money - I keep £1,000 here as it gives 2% interest and you can also use your debit card abroad with no charges.

3. Club Lloyds - I got this as a second current account (mainly because Bank of Scotland pays no interest on balances above £5,000 so this is useful for spillover) and also because you get six free cinema tickets a year. I also use their regular saver as you can pay in £400 a month, which is quite high for regular saver accounts.

4. Nationwide FlexDirect account - I keep £1,500 in here to get the 2% interest. I also put £100 each month into their regular saver account. Nationwide do a prize draw every few months which I have no delusions about winning, but it's free so why not.

5. Tide business account - I use this for my freelance work, mainly because it had a £75 sign up bonus but also because it's easy to invoice people through their app and I want to keep my freelance accounts separate from my personal ones.

Every month I also pay £700 into a Vanguard Stocks and Shares ISA and I pay anything left over into Premium Bonds.

fanheater

Current accounts:

1. Barclays joint account which includes mortgage and two direct debits so £8 cashback a month

2. Halifax Reward Account x2 which combined give £10 a month for spending £500 on the cards

3. NatWest Reward Account with two direct debits which gives £3 a month

4. Virgin and Club Lloyds accounts to earn interest on credit balances.

Combined, these are worth close to £25 a month. 

I have other accounts which serve no or little purpose e.g. First Direct and HSBC which are tied to regular savers but which I'm unlikely to bother with next time.

Credit cards:

1. Amex rewards for personal

2. HSBC Reward card for any non Amex personal

3. John Lewis partnership card for joint spending

4. Dormant Halifax Clarity card.

MEM62

I have;
* A personal current account for day to day stuff
* A separate personal current account through which all the finances for my rented flat are channelled
* A joint account with my wife for household expenses. 
* A savings account for things like holidays, car replacement and having fun money
* A share ISA for longer-term savings. 
* 3 x credit cards - all cleared monthly

WillPS

I have 8 or 9 accounts which I loop money through to maintain them. Some of these accounts, including HSBC Advance, I should probably stop bothering with as they offer me so little now but it's as much of a faff to take them out of the loop as to maintain it. Included in that number is a Barclays Current Account, Natwest + RBS Reward, 2 Halifax Reward accounts and 2 TSB Spend & Saves - in total I get about £30 in rewards from these.

I also have a Halifax Ultimate Reward account which I pay a net £12/month for, purely for the insurances.

Bills are all paid from a Santander 123 Lite account although the next time this is cutback I will probably close it, I'm down to less than £2/month net benefit on there now.

In terms of Credit Cards, I have a bit of an elaborate system -
If it's in Tesco, always use my Tesco Premium CC (1 Clubcard pt per £)
If it's in any other supermarket (including places like Co op and Costcutter), always use my Natwest Reward CC (1% cashback)
If it's somewhere else and they accept Amex, always use my fiancée's Nectar Amex (I'm going fallow currently...)
If it's somewhere else, they don't accept Amex, and the transaction is under £4, always use my Barclaycard Cashback (0.5% cashback)
In any other case, use my Tesco Premium CC (1 Clubcard pt per £4)

All these are paid in full each and every month.

Savings have a similar hierarchy but I won't bore you with that.

Rich1976

We have

1 joint current account
1 joint credit card which most of the spending goes on each month and paid off on pay day. We keep a £50 surplus in the current account should we need cash or if the credit card doesnt work
1 joint savings account which houses emergency Fund, all short term Savings and the bills we pay annually
1 investment Isa each
1 sipp each

Works well for us since we simplified things 18 months ago

Gary_S_3

My salary is paid into my Monzo account (for the sole reason that they let you access regular salary payments a day early). This then transferred into my main current account which is a Nationwide FlexBasic.

All my regular household bill payments are paid from a Natwest Reward Account (because the direct debits mean I benefit from the cashback and there's a also a good linked regular saver).

Money that I deem as expendable income goes into my Tesco Clubcard Pay account and it's linked 0.5% savings account. I like having my spending money for the month seperate so this arrangement suits me well.

Regardless of how you choose to organise this, I'd certainly echo other folks' comments about having accounts with more than one provider though - even if it's just a basic back-up account somewhere else, always sensible to have at least one other option.

colsten

Gary_S_3 said:

Money that I deem as expendable income goes into my Tesco Clubcard Pay account and it's linked 0.5% savings account. I like having my spending money for the month seperate so this arrangement.

Are you certain that you get 0.5% on the linked savings account? Last time I looked it was 0.1%. Obviously Tesco do have a 0.5% savings account (with 0.4% bonus for 12 months) as well, but you don't need a Clubcard Pay account for that. You can also get a 'proper' 0.6% instant savings account elsewhere.