Best account option for this? Advice appreciated.

Max68

Thought I would come to the good people here rather than sit on the phone for two hours trying to get through to telephone banking!

I play golf with a group of chaps regularly throughout the summer.  Muppet here gets lumbered with the organising and paying, and whilst I do get the money back from others in the shape of cash or bank transfer, paying for four week upon week looks a tad frightening coming out of my account and with my dreadful maths skills if someone wallops £200 into my account because they can't be bothered to pay once a week I totally lose count of where I am with my own monthly income and expenditure!

So I came to the conclusion that opening a second account, purely for golf monies would be the answer.  For the others to pay their weekly or monthly subs into and for me to pay the golf clubs direct from thus not affecting my current account in any way.  My question is this, what is the best account to open?  Someone suggested a savings account but I believe you don't get a debit card with a savings account so I guess I wouldn't be able to pay directly out of it?  So would a second current account be the answer or are there problems that could arise with a second current account?  Could having another account where the funds are not mine also become an issue with a credit score or having to report all accounts for any particular reason?

What's the best way of doing this?  And I thought it was going to be easy!!

Thank you.

PRAISETHESUN

There's no issue with opening a second current account - plenty of people on these forums have multiple accounts with multiple banks. It's probably the simplest option to separate your day-to-day spending from the golf monies. I'd recommend you just open a second current account with your current bank as it should be quicker as there shouldn't be any issues with having to provide ID, etc to get it sorted. Just pick a standard fee-free account.

There might be a hard credit search depending on who you bank with (some banks do and some don't for additional accounts) but in any case a single hard search in the middle of an otherwise well managed file is nothing. Just don't open a new account if you've got a mortgage application or other big credit application coming up.

Ebe_Scrooge

^^^ This.  On the face of it, a bog-standard current account would seem to be simplest.  You could even opt for a basic account with no overdraft facility to lessen the chance of a credit search being performed.  But even if a search is performed, it's pretty much irrelevant unless you're in the process of applying for a mortgage.

There's no issue with having multiple current accounts, either with the same bank as you currently use, or with another bank.  Lots of people do this ( a "bills" account, a "spending money" account, a "saving up for holidays" account, etc.)

Max68

Thank you.,  I might be trying to find a balance transfer credit card towards the end of the year so re "hard search" would it be possibly better to leave opening any new bank account until after I have applied for a card?  No mortgage or any other application coming up.

PRAISETHESUN

Max68 said:

Thank you.,  I might be trying to find a balance transfer credit card towards the end of the year so re "hard search" would it be possibly better to leave opening any new bank account until after I have applied for a card?  No mortgage or any other application coming up.

There's no hard or fast rules for credit cards as lenders each have different criteria, but for the most part the impact (if any) of a single hard search will be barely noticeable after a months or two. If it's absolutely critical that you give yourself the best chance of a BT card in 4 months time then I'd hold off, but otherwise go for it. Who are you planning to open your second account with? There might not even be a hard search to worry about anyway.

Max68

Just Barclays my current bank, I might just pop in and ask.  It's nearly end of the season for us "fair weather golfers" anyway so it's not essential I open it now.  Would just make it easier without other peoples monies in my current account.  Thank you.

Daliah

Keep an eye on Kroo. They might do what you need. https://www.kroo.com/waiting-list

Millyonare

Keep a spreadsheet (or paper notebook) of monies in and out, who paid, not paid, who owes, how much, and when. Know someone who ended up ~£1000 out of pocket while organising various lads' ski trips and losing track of who paid and did not pay.