Cheap private banks

Marchitiello

gary1312 said:

lr1277 said:

This is not a recommendation but a suggestion for further investigation.
Cater Allen May fulfill some of your needs. When I last looked about 18 months ago:
You needed the equivalent of £5k per type of currency current account. They only offered sterling, euro and dollar current accounts.
You need to be introduced to them by a qualified professional eg solicitor, accountant or financial adviser.
The application form was long and required lots of information.
Their current account charges for a Sterling current account were comparable to a high street bank.

I have a Cater Allen Sterling Account - unlike their Private Account there are no minimum income or balance requirements. You can also apply directly on their website, no need for an intermediary.

That product is no longer on offer 

trient

Marchitiello said:

gary1312 said:

lr1277 said:

This is not a recommendation but a suggestion for further investigation.
Cater Allen May fulfill some of your needs. When I last looked about 18 months ago:
You needed the equivalent of £5k per type of currency current account. They only offered sterling, euro and dollar current accounts.
You need to be introduced to them by a qualified professional eg solicitor, accountant or financial adviser.
The application form was long and required lots of information.
Their current account charges for a Sterling current account were comparable to a high street bank.

I have a Cater Allen Sterling Account - unlike their Private Account there are no minimum income or balance requirements. You can also apply directly on their website, no need for an intermediary.

That product is no longer on offer 

At least now if you qualify for their private bank account they will "allow" you to apply online. Sterling bank accounts, you had to fill in a heap of papers, mail them back and wait for a few weeks. A much more premier experience now. /s

Oh and for their excelsior plus they'll probably throw in an app.

Marchitiello

Marchitiello said:

This question has come up before over the years on these pages, and there has been a fair amount of discussion around it. OP other thread about “wealth managers” looks to be doubling up on this line of curiosity questioning.

First of all we need to differentiate between proper “Private” banks, and the “Private Bank” operations of the larger retail banks. Almost without exceptions, proper Private banks will require large assets (in the millions) and commitment to have them manage these assets on your behalf and at a fee. Recent cover on the press about Coutts minimum £3m balance are an indication of that (Although part of the NatWest group, Coutts has always been run as a separate and fairly independent private bank). Some of the other proper private bank in the UK have closed down or been absorbed over the last few years, but again I would not consider any of those to meet the “curiosity” of the OP.

Now, Retail Banks have often an increased level of account offer to match the wealth of their customers:

Premier : Min income £75k-£100k, very little benefits usually, some access to restricted products

Private: £250k - £2m min income  (as an example Lloyds starts at £250k for a slightly better service than other banks offer for Premier, but would really only offer you their full Private Banking service (called Mayfair) from £2m upwards).

Some of these banks also have or had a mid tier level like Barclays Wealth (£500k) or HSBC Jade (discontinued).

So, to answer the OP, unless you meet the above requirements, you would not have access to their service and even then, do not expect it to be cheap.

Forgot to mention, that Lloyds offers, to their retail banking customers, access to their Joint ventures with Schroders, Schroders Personal Wealth, which may have some of what the OP is looking for (maybe access to some of those “private equity funds” he is referring to. Whilst Lloyds does not offer a “premier” equivalent account type, they do assign Personal Bankers to some customers, and through that I was invited, before the official launch, to book an initial free consultation with SPW to see what they could offer me. Services after that would all carry fees/charges. 

pridehappy

HSBC Premier is most likely the easiest private bank to access and it’s fee-free.

However, it’s common to get better deals from the consumer sides of banks with a less threatening nature for continuing to invest. Sure, customer service isn’t as good across the board but choosing a few ones with decent customer service, £85,000/£140,000 FSCS protection and good interest.

I’d suggest checking out Virgin Money, Nationwide Building Society and Skipton Building Society.

GeoffTF

Has anyone used Santander Private Banking?

Marchitiello

pridehappy said:

HSBC Premier is most likely the easiest private bank to access and it’s fee-free.

However, it’s common to get better deals from the consumer sides of banks with a less threatening nature for continuing to invest. Sure, customer service isn’t as good across the board but choosing a few ones with decent customer service, £85,000/£140,000 FSCS protection and good interest.

I’d suggest checking out Virgin Money, Nationwide Building Society and Skipton Building Society.

HSBC Premier is not a “Private Bank”, is is simply a type of account services that HSBC UK retail banks offers to customers earnings above £75k and/or with a chunk of saving.
I do agree that amongst the “Premier” offering it is the one giving some free tangible benefits (family worldwide travel insurance), and as other similar offering, it should give you slightly better customer service,  but in terms of the OP quest for a Cheap Private bank  offering access to Private Equity Funds and special FX rates, it would not fit the bill at all (unless the OP is looking at special FX rates for under £1000 transactions, in that case HSBC GMA could help, but it would be available to any standard HSBC account)

Marchitiello

GeoffTF said:

Has anyone used Santander Private Banking?

As I said I have had some experience with Cater Allen (I still have a semi dormant currency account, should check out if is actually still operational…), but they do/did operate as a separate operations from Santander, especially with their systems and procedures.

I have also been a “Select” customer at Santander for some years, and I have to say that amongst the Premier offering is the one that does not look to differentiate at all between standard customers and Select, even when it comes to customer service, so would also be curious what level of service their private customers get. 

GeoffTF

Marchitiello said:

GeoffTF said:

Has anyone used Santander Private Banking?

As I said I have had some experience with Cater Allen (I still have a semi dormant currency account, should check out if is actually still operational…), but they do/did operate as a separate operations from Santander, especially with their systems and procedures.

I have also been a “Select” customer at Santander for some years, and I have to say that amongst the Premier offering is the one that does not look to differentiate at all between standard customers and Select, even when it comes to customer service, so would also be curious what level of service their private customers get. 

There does appear to be a Select customer services team. They used to have relationship managers, but I never spoke to mine. They are not offering new Select accounts, but are pushing Private Banking. I would qualify by virtue of having >£500K investments, and they say I would not have to transfer them in. It appears that I would have to convert my 123 Lite to an Edge Up account. That does not look favourable, but the cost difference is not significant. If Private Banking is costing me nothing, I expect that I will get what I pay for, but there is possibility that I might have less hassle transferring large sums.

Futuristic

GeoffTF said:

Has anyone used Santander Private Banking?

I banked with Santander personal (+business), they never got back to me after the initial interview. I think it's cause they wouldn't make money off me, investment products have silly high fees and they knew I already have my investments elsewhere and wouldn't hold large balance with them.

These offers by most high street banks are merely normal personal accounts with "private" branding and maybe a personal account manager which if you already bank online is mostly pointless. Real private banks are like Coutts, Weatherbys, JPM etc. with margin facilities, lending stocks etc. 

For large fx there's plenty of options around that dont need "private" facility, HSBC being one of them if its major currency eg. EUR/USD. Maybe even Fineco or IBKR. 

Not sure what OP means by "private equity funds" other than ridiculous high fee "managed" funds. 

Tl;dr From my weeks of looking into private banking, it is useless rip off unless you need margin facility in the million(s). 

brucefan_2

GeoffTF said:

Marchitiello said:

GeoffTF said:

Has anyone used Santander Private Banking?

As I said I have had some experience with Cater Allen (I still have a semi dormant currency account, should check out if is actually still operational…), but they do/did operate as a separate operations from Santander, especially with their systems and procedures.

I have also been a “Select” customer at Santander for some years, and I have to say that amongst the Premier offering is the one that does not look to differentiate at all between standard customers and Select, even when it comes to customer service, so would also be curious what level of service their private customers get. 

There does appear to be a Select customer services team. They used to have relationship managers, but I never spoke to mine. They are not offering new Select accounts, but are pushing Private Banking. I would qualify by virtue of having >£500K investments, and they say I would not have to transfer them in. It appears that I would have to convert my 123 Lite to an Edge Up account. That does not look favourable, but the cost difference is not significant. If Private Banking is costing me nothing, I expect that I will get what I pay for, but there is possibility that I might have less hassle transferring large sums.

So, am I understanding this correctly? They would offer you a 'Private Banking' account even though all your assets are elsewhere?

I've just looked on the 'Private Banking' website - the requirements on the account are pretty minimal, requiring £1500 monthly pay in and 2 DDs.

3.5% on up to £25k is nowhere near market leading but not too shabby for anyone who just wants the convenience of their accessible cash being in one place.

The attraction would very much be the speedier access to more knowledgeable staff who would be able to smooth out any difficulties on a hopefully speedier time frame than might normally be the case.