What’s your financial setup

DireEmblem

I think the only account I have closed was Lloyds as hated the online setup.

I use old fashioned bricks and mortar banks to receive my salary and pay monthly bills.
I use a Neo bank like starling for its savings pots.  I build up balances over the year to cover birthdays/christmas/holidays/insurance/maintenance.

For general savings I use NS&I instead of buying lottery tickets, and rotate round the best interest rate accounts out there.
For Investing, I use 212 and Fidelity to balance out the odd purchase of individual shares, ETFs and Mutual Funds.

Credit card wise - I quite like the AMEX shop local, but not sure if there is a better one out there for me, haven't looked for a while.

Richard1212

Like the O/P , I too like to keep various financial activities separate so I compartmentalise between : 

NatWest 3 accounts, including Premier Select; Credit Suisse 2 Accounts; Hoare Private Account.

Cards---linked to the above plus Amex.

One of the cards has, in fact, just been used to buy our flight to our house in Mahé , so I will be absent from the forum for rest of February and some of March. Good posting to you all, especially the intrepid everyday posters.

jbrassy

I use First Direct as my main account where my salary gets paid in and bills get paid from. I really like the customer service.

For day-to-day spending, I use Amex Platinum for the cashback and use Chase where Amex is not accepted. However, the cashback bonus on Chase is due to expire in March, so I will then start using my Capital One cashback credit card which I've had for years.

For cash savings, I use Chase and I also have a S&S ISA with Vanguard. I know I can get higher interest than Chase, but I'm moving house this year so need easy access to the cash when that happens.

I have Barclaycard Rewards for spending abroad and Starling for ATM withdrawals abroad. I also use Starling as a separate account for my matched betting (which funds my holidays).

Also have accounts with Virgin Money which has offered decent savings rates in the past and is a good back-up for foreign spending as well as a Halifax account which I'm thinking of switching to get some switching bonuses.

pridehappy

Current Accounts:

• Virgin Money Club M | Main current account used for direct debits/most everyday payments. Chose the Club M account as the digital cover and travel insurance is superior to Nationwide's FlexPlus for little difference. Provides really good interest and a linked saver is great for quick transfers. Love the app's functionality and service, not sure why it gets so many bad reviews.
  
• Nationwide FlexDirect | Used for the free overdraft (even though I'm very rarely in it) and as a solid backup in case Virgin Money was unavailable. Now using for supermarket shopping with the 5% cashback. Have some direct debits coming out and wages going in as a backup, like a second main account I guess you could say.
  
• Lloyds Bank Club Lloyds | Soon to be switched for a profit, really unsatisfied with the service and used to use it as my second main before moving to Nationwide. Only kept for the free cinema tickets and legacy as my family have been with them for around 60/70 years between generations.

Credit Cards:

• Virgin Atlantic Reward | Use this for nearly all everyday purchases (except during Nationwide's 5% supermarket cashback) due to the good rate of Virgin Points per rate spent, better offer than other reward cards and not many people know they exist or think you need to fly with Virgin Atlantic to benefit. I've never flown with them and already benefited so much.
• Halifax Cashback | Used to be my main credit card. Seems to randomly decline for no reason at all and as with Lloyds Bank, Halifax doesn't know why. The cashback rate is really low although had it for so long my credit limit is very high.
  
• Tesco Bank | Just a backup in case the others fail. Sometimes use when Clubcard offers are on, but never shop at Tesco every day so don't get much back in rewards.
  
• Sainsbury's Bank | Used for an interest-free offer, soon to be closed as not needed and provides little rewards even though I shop at Sainsbury's regularly and low credit limit compared to the others.

Savings:

• Skipton Building Society - ISA.
• Virgin Money - M Plus Saver.
• Nationwide - Saver.
• Halifax - Saver.

Travel:

• Virgin Money Club M | Linked to main current account for trusted purchases and offers fee-free spending abroad as standard.
• Post Office Travel Money Card | Easy to use a card with great rates and no fees when spending abroad. Much better than the cards offered from Hay's Travel or Tui etc.
  

ircE

Current accounts: 4

- 1 to receive salary, which then gets distributed to accounts 2, 3 and savings

- 1 to receive most of salary from 1, goes on spending along with credit card

- 1 to do some spending distinct from most of my spending on the above account - considering consolidating with one of the others tbh

- 1 solely to switch for rewards

Savings accounts: 11

- 1 of them has the bulk of my emergency savings, thanks to its interest rate

- 1 of them is Premium Bonds, saving for a specific goal this year

- 1 of them is a credit union which I like to support by keeping some of my emergency savings

- 8 of them are helping to maximise interest by drip feeding emergency savings and/or being open to maintain continuous membership for loyalty rates

Credit card: 1

- to do most of my spending - considering picking another one up for overseas spending

gary1312

Monthly salary paid into a Monzo account which used to be my main current account but now used just for the get yer wages a day early feature,

Then transferred into a NatWest Reward account with a MoneyBox weekly direct debit on it, leaving enough in there to cover those savings. Then cycled through a Lloyds Club account for a free magazine and then into an RBS Reward account through which I pay my bills and RBS Select which is for spending.

I also have old accounts with Virgin Money from my Yorkshire Bank days and Starling which I keep open for use when travelling, along with accounts with other providers only really kept open to use in case of any switching offers.

Hurdler

Its_just_Barry said:

What’s everyone’s 2023 setup, Any changes?

No changes but 2023 was pretty mean to me. It waited until I had paid up for my birthday holiday before hitting me with some pretty major household expenses - which made Feb one long January Blues session.

So all I can do now is enjoy that holiday because I am not getting another one this year. I need to really get into a routine with my sweepsave account. At the moment it is seeing the inside of nothing! That's my focus for 2023! Also I need to start figuring a way to repay my life savings investment wrap - I plundered heavily from it to keep myself afloat in the pandemic, and again when I got landed with my first tax bill after two very rough pandemic years as a freelancer. 
Sweepsave and replenish investment savings are my primary concern when I get back from my hols. 

subjecttocontract

Here's a different approach........

I try to earn & save as much of my own money as I can and then try to spend other people's money for day to day costs if I can get away with it.

In the past this has usually consisted of my using employers expense account (legitimately) e.g. volunteering to travel & stay away (cos they paid all the costs), especially lucrative was foreign travel. I managed to work for 4 years in Europe, company house, all expenses paid, private schooling etc. Rented out my own place in the UK and made a packet.

When I got back I spent money on buying rental property and built a portfolio so again, I was spending rent money received and none of my own. That lasted until I retired.

When I retired my wife continued to work......she pays most of the bills, the Government have made an effort to pay some others & I just enjoy selling my properties & spending my fortune.

mr._prude

For joint household budgeting we started out with just one joint account. Everything was coming out of that one account, it was total chaos. Over the years however we have expanded it out to seven accounts, see below.

Santander Lite 123 current account Monthly household bills, for mortgage, electric, TV licence, broadband etc.. £5 cashback after the £2 fee.

Santander Saver account Quarterly/Annual household bills for dog food, heating oil, firewood etc...

Santander current account Car Account (2 cars) for car repayments, tax, insurance, fuel, maintenance etc...

Halifax cash current account 1Food and kids account (2 kids), for groceries, dinner money, school bus, kids clothes, tutor fees etc..

Halifax Saver 1 Hoildays & Birthdays account, for kids birthdays /christmas presents and holidays local/foreign.

Halifax current account 2 DIY account for house maintenance and improvements.

Halifax Saver 2 Emergency fund account. We just set this up today for those unexpected breakdowns.

(In 2023 we booked a foreign holiday, a few days latter the turbo blew in my car £1500. One week before Christmas the washing machine packed it in £500.)

Joint debt

Santander Mortgage fixed at 1.64% for another 3.4 years, thank goodness.

Santander Credit card 0% OH Old overdraft, will be cleared in 4 months

Santander Credit card 0% Car 1 Loan, will be cleared in 6 months

Barclarys Credit card 0% OH Car 2 Loan will be cleared in 2 years

All the above accounts are tracked in spread sheets.

mr._prude

I have read though complete thread, getting cashback via credit cards or special current accounts for spending sounds interesting too