Unable to Open Savings Account without Current Account in Same Bank

MEM62

Dee_100 said:

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. 

Parking the question as why you would want to keep such large sums in cash, you could go for a Marcus savings account - which is readily available with no such restrictions.