Nationwide Flex Account or Flex Direct? (for the switch bonus)

eastmidsaver

hi .... i think i am going to do this and go for switch.

i have been an HSBC customer almost forever and was always keeping the account due to it being from childhood,  however i've realised this should not be a reason to stay with them, as they not exactly doing me any favours.

anyway,  i have seen that to do the switch Nationwide have a choice of account types.  i don't want to pay so the options are Flex Account, or the FlexDirect. 

can anyone tell me what the difference is to these (other than the interest that gets paid for 1 year) and which you'd go for?

i just want to make sure i choose the right one as it'll then become my main bank account.

many thanks.

YorkshireBoy

Regards "difference", there's enough info on their website for you to establish this yourself...isn't there? Have you looked at the comparison table provided?

But to answer your second question, I'd choose FlexDirect and stooze the 0% O/D facility, as I have done previously, and use it to greater effect elsewhere. However, if your credit rating/income is poor then this may not be useful to you and you may prefer the 2% interest? The FlexAccount offers you absolutely nothing over FlexDirect, other than branch services. 

If HSBC is your only current account (is it?) then you may be better keeping it and opening/switching a sacrificial account instead. This is because 'time with bank' can be a good stability indicator when being scored for other credit facilities. 

eastmidsaver

yes i did look at the website to compare the difference,  and the key difference was the interest for 1 year  (and overdraft) as you've pointed out.

as it seemed a bit too obvious to go for FlexDirect from that table,  i just really wanted to check there wasn't something i am missing.

i do have another bank account too  (first direct where i got a switch bonus too),   but with Nationwide you need to switch over direct debits,   so it'd be too much work to first send them to first direct.   i can always keep that as a spare incase any other future offers come up.

thanks for your input, i'll get onto it soon.