Unable to Open Savings Account without Current Account in Same Bank

Dee_100

Hi,

I've been with Nationwide Building Society for the last 18 years and have both a current account and savings account with them. I don't have any other bank account with anyone else. I've recently gone over £85,000 with the amount of money I have banked with Nationwide. As my savings are only protected up to £85,000 I thought I would open a savings account with another bank and transfer some of my savings into there so the money is split across different banks and all of it is protected.

I've been into both my local Barclays and Santander branches this week and both have told me that I can only open a savings account with them if I already have a current account with them or choose to open a current account with them first. Now I haven't attempted to open a new account with a bank in 18 years so I might be wrong here, but I always thought you could open a savings account with any bank without needing to have a current account with that bank also (I appreciate that you still need to pass credit/security checks). I don't need another current account, I just want to open a new savings account with another bank to transfer some of my savings into there.

Have I missed something in my understanding over the years or is this a recent change with banks?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

pramsay13

It's up to the banks how they want to do business and they have decided their savings accounts are only for their customers. 
Just pick one and open a current account and then a savings account. 
Once it's open you can transfer money directly to the savings account and just ignore the current account.

Molehusband

Dee_100 said:

I've been into both my local Barclays and Santander branches this week and both have told me that I can only open a savings account with them if I already have a current account with them or choose to open a current account with them first. Now I haven't attempted to open a new account with a bank in 18 years so I might be wrong here, but I always thought you could open a savings account with any bank without needing to have a current account with that bank also (I appreciate that you still need to pass credit/security checks). I don't need another current account, I just want to open a new savings account with another bank to transfer some of my savings into there.

I fully understand the situation you find yourself in with the banks you have visited. However there are many other financial institutions such as Buildi9ng Societies, many of which only offer savings accounts and no current accounts. Have you considered other (non-bank) financial institutions for opening a savings account? However many of them won't have walk in branches and you'll have to contact them by phone or via website/online to open an account. You can find many of such savings accounts listed here:

https://moneyfacts.co.uk/

under the Savings Accounts section.

Daliah

Neither Barclays nor Santander nor any other High Street bank or Building Society have good savings rates. Check moneyfacts.co.uk for the best rates. https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/

Bigwheels1111

Who needs one of the banks for savings.
I have 5 main stream bank accounts 1 app based Chase and 1 building society account.Plus 3 app based saving accounts.
Atom, Tandem and Ford Money.
I have no savings invested with 4 of the banks, 1 regular saver with First Direct and one regular saver with Skipton.
Savings would go with chase easy access account at 1.5%. No credit check to open just your passport or driving license and a phone or iPad for the app.
I know I could get a better rate than Chase but I think in the next 6-8 weeks a 2 year fixed will be 3% or more.
2 year fixed today is 2.75%. https://mhbs.co.uk/savings/bond-90/

Holding the money at 1.5% suits me for a few weeks then I will fix for a year or two.
Most likely a year. It’s all a gamble with rates constantly changing on a daily basis.

Watch the rates here.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

Rob5342

There are loads of savings accounts you can choose from that don't need a current account, just look online -  Atom bank for example

https://www.atombank.co.uk/savings/

TheWoodler

In terms of savings -  if branch-based services are important to you (as I note you visited High St banks in person, rather than looked them up on the net) you may live in an area with a regional building society network (eg Principality in Wales, Newcastle, Bath, Cumberland, Cambridge etc). They only offer savings so no need to open a current account. Some of the bigger players - Coventry, Skipton, Yorkshire - have a larger out of region network.

They won’t necessarily have table-topping rates, but they *will* definitely offer better rates than the banks (and usually better service), all FSCS-protected too. 

That said, many of them have, at one time or another, had a top product while that product is on sale.

Some have postcode restrictions even though they also have an online presence, but more and more are easing these as they go online, and so you can manage your branch account online and/or in app as well, or just apply for an online account. 

Zanderman

OP seems, from their wording, to be looking for a branch-based bank, not an online one, so many of the suggestions may not help. Also, from the wording, It seems that OP isn't interest-rate hunting either, just wanting another branch-based bank, so the advice on searching for better rates may not help either.

The best option, if looking for high street access, not online and not best interest rates, is for OP to look at whatever other institutions there are locally to them - building societies etc, post office (if they do branch accounts). If they have Nationwide, Santander and Barclays locally then it sounds like a largish town so should have other options. 

Dee_100

Thank you all for your replies. It's been interesting reading the above comments and I think I will look into some of the other non-bank financial institutions mentioned here. I'm happy to open an online account and not limited to going for a high street branch (although that does get me out of the house for some exercise). Regarding the last post there are a couple of other options in my town also, so I will explore these too. 

EssexExile

It's always worth having a second current account. There are plenty of cases on here of current accounts being frozen or inaccessible for a period, a spare is handy even if you don't use it much.

RG2015

I have about 20 savings accounts and my favourite is Marcus from Goldman Sachs.

When it was launched it had a market leading interest rate. It has now fallen a bit behind but is still okay at 1.15% p.a.

https://www.marcus.co.uk/uk/en/savings/online-savings-account

Edit. You don't need to use the app as it is has excellent online website access.