How much does your bank balance impact how the bank treat you?

wmb194

Aminatidi said:

OK useful to know thank you 👍🏻

Hopefully it came across in the original message but it's a bog standard bank account and "platinum" Lloyds card even though it's green and the basic card far as I know.

I've no interest in thinking I'm a special customer nor do I care about black or gold cards as I stopped having a gold card when they wanted to charge for the privilege.

I'll check rates.

Recommendations welcome on who's actually a decent place for savings in so much as not offering "carrot" rates then dropping them and making it easy to open an account and withdraw money.

I'm not sending notarised copies of passports to some obscure bank 😀

If it's your main account with at least a couple of DDs I'd 'upgrade' it to be a Club account. You'll earn a little interest and you can get a Disney+ subscription for free plus it gives you access to some slightly better savings accounts.

GeoffTF

Aminatidi said:

Ha I don't expect they do either.

By "think" I obviously mean some computer algorithm decides to reduce my credit card limit in the middle of the night because I took my savings account elsewhere so I don't have as much money with them etc.

I have a Barclaycard, but I do not bank with Barclays. They have no idea of my financial means.

dunstonh

Back in my Lloyds Bank days (which was a long time ago) they had a value indicator for each customer.   It wasn't based on the balances but the profitability.  And decisions were often made with reference to profitability.    Having a lot of money didn't mean you were profitable.

lr1277

From a purely practical point of view, I would keep some savings in the same bank as the one holding my current account.

If you think the amount you have in your current account can keep you going for a few months, then move your savings out to somewhere else.

But if they can't, I would want the option of moving savings to my current account to pay an unexpected bill.

It is just possible there might be technical or other reasons for not being able to get your money out of your 3rd party savings provider. Possibly for some time.

So in your situation, I might keep 1/4 to 1/2 in the same bank as my current account and move the remainder out to a higher paying savings account.

GeoffTF

lr1277 said:

From a purely practical point of view, I would keep some savings in the same bank as the one holding my current account.

If you think the amount you have in your current account can keep you going for a few months, then move your savings out to somewhere else.

But if they can't, I would want the option of moving savings to my current account to pay an unexpected bill.

It is just possible there might be technical or other reasons for not being able to get your money out of your 3rd party savings provider. Possibly for some time.

So in your situation, I might keep 1/4 to 1/2 in the same bank as my current account and move the remainder out to a higher paying savings account.

Everyone's circumstances are different, but that would not bother me. I have two savings accounts with other banks. Hopefully, one of them will be operational. If I had a large credit card bill, and there was not enough money coming into my current account to cover it, my overdraft facility would cover it, and I should be able to claim compensation for the interest.

allegro120

Aminatidi said:

Recommendations welcome on who's actually a decent place for savings in so much as not offering "carrot" rates then dropping them and making it easy to open an account and withdraw money.

I'm not sending notarised copies of passports to some obscure bank 😀

There are plenty of easy access options paying slightly above 5% at the moment.  However, if you don't need immediate access to your money you can have a look at RCI 95 days notice 5.6% account.  I've opened one recently, very easy to open online - no "notarised copies of passports" or similar nonsense.  Can fund it straight away, but for giving notice you have to receive a letter with verification code from them, this took 2 or 3 days.  Notice can be cancelled at any time if you decide to keep money there for longer.  The only downside is that withdrawals arrive on the next working day so you will loose 1 day interest when you withdraw.  The rate is variable, but if they change it, they will give you at least 109 days' notice, so you will have plenty of time to decide what you want to do with it.

badmemory

GeoffTF said:

I have a Barclaycard, but I do not bank with Barclays. They have no idea of my financial means.

Me too.  Every 2 years I have fun because I get a letter saying we will reduce your credit limit to £100 or even close your card if you do not spend.  So I spend a small amount & lo & behold my credit limit stays the same.  It is a back up card & as the benefits are useless to me I use the one that gives me cashback.  What is not to like.

GeoffTF

badmemory said:

GeoffTF said:

I have a Barclaycard, but I do not bank with Barclays. They have no idea of my financial means.

Me too.  Every 2 years I have fun because I get a letter saying we will reduce your credit limit to £100 or even close your card if you do not spend.  So I spend a small amount & lo & behold my credit limit stays the same.  It is a back up card & as the benefits are useless to me I use the one that gives me cashback.  What is not to like.

I get 0.25% cashback on the Rewards card, and an average of 7 weeks interest free loan, with one bill at the end of the month. It is a nice purple colour too. That is a good deal for my modest expenditure.

Ocelot

GeoffTF said:

Aminatidi said:

I don't know if Lloyds think "he's got £20K in a savings account with us so we can see he's sensible"...

It is more likely that they think "he's got £20K in a savings account with us so we can see he's a sucker". Actually, I do not expect that they think about you at all.

Lloyds sometimes message me to say I could be getting a better rate (I have 15k or so earning 0.9% in an emergency fund).

I also find when I have over 100k in my current account (not for long, usually after a bond expires) a window pops up asking me to invest with their people.

I also had 50k in an Atom account after a fixed rate expired, earning 0.1%, and they emailed me saying I could get a better rate if I moved my money.

I suspect these are just automated algorithms.

ColdIron

Ocelot said:

GeoffTF said:

Aminatidi said:

I don't know if Lloyds think "he's got £20K in a savings account with us so we can see he's sensible"...

It is more likely that they think "he's got £20K in a savings account with us so we can see he's a sucker". Actually, I do not expect that they think about you at all.

Lloyds sometimes message me to say I could be getting a better rate (I have 15k or so earning 0.9% in an emergency fund).

Lloyds are right