Current account for Scottish Widows mortgage

Plus

I'm in the process of setting up a Scottish Widows offset mortgage.  The way I plan to use the offset there will be some chunky flows of money between various accounts (the mortgage account, the offset savings account, a flexible cash ISA, the 'linked current account' that the mortgage payments come out of and offset goes into.

The mortgage, the offset, the cash ISA can all be from Scottish Widows, so minimising friction/anti-fraud delays when transferring between them.  However SW don't offer a current account, so I want to open one elsewhere to service the mortgage.

Normally I'd assume the thing to do here is open one at the same group - ie Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland.  Is there any reason to pick one over the other, in terms of ease of sending money to/from Scottish Widows?  Anyone have any experiences with transfers in/out of SW? Or any other problems with this plan?

wmb194

Plus said:

I'm in the process of setting up a Scottish Widows offset mortgage.  The way I plan to use the offset there will be some chunky flows of money between various accounts (the mortgage account, the offset savings account, a flexible cash ISA, the 'linked current account' that the mortgage payments come out of and offset goes into.

The mortgage, the offset, the cash ISA can all be from Scottish Widows, so minimising friction/anti-fraud delays when transferring between them.  However SW don't offer a current account, so I want to open one elsewhere to service the mortgage.

Normally I'd assume the thing to do here is open one at the same group - ie Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland.  Is there any reason to pick one over the other, in terms of ease of sending money to/from Scottish Widows?  Anyone have any experiences with transfers in/out of SW? Or any other problems with this plan?

Scottish Widows is part of Lloyds Bank and shares FSCS coverage with it so I'd go with Lloyds. 

I have a Scottish Widows savings account that I use occasionally for a DD and IIRC withdrawals are next day. Its internet banking is like something from 1998 - it isn't integrated with Lloyds' - so I wouldn't expect too much. Its rates are awful as well.

Halifax and BoS have a banking licence separate from Lloyds/SW that covers them together, share FSCS coverage and are integrated with one another - when you login to Halifax you'll see and be able to transact with your BoS accounts - but you won't see any Lloyds accounts.

[Deleted User]

The BOS set-up is a legacy of when they operated as a single bank with their Halifax brand.

Birmingham Midshires and IF have the same legal structure as Halifax but neither are accessible from BOS or each other. 

Plus

Thanks, I hadn't thought of the FSCS angle. I suppose that could make a difference - eg if I had a £100K SW mortgage and £100K in savings with Lloyds, and the whole group went bust, I'd owe nothing.  If I had £100K mortgage and £100K savings with HBOS, £85K would be covered by FSCS but I'd still owe £15K to SW.

Sounds like Lloyds is the best plan, given the lack of other integration SW has with the rest of the group.