Bank account suitable for an 18 year old, on a low income, but not a student?

amosz

Dear all

Could you recommend a bank account for a person who has just turned 18, but is not a student, and does not pay in £1000+ a month?? Preferably one that might pay them to switch [ they are currently with Santander, but the interest rate with them, and their security - is poor!

Hope you can assist !
Many thanks, Mum 

Emmia

amosz said:

Dear all

Could you recommend a bank account for a person who has just turned 18, but is not a student, and does not pay in £1000+ a month?? Preferably one that might pay them to switch [ they are currently with Santander, but the interest rate with them, and their security - is poor!

Hope you can assist !
Many thanks, Mum 

Most banks will offer an account that would be suitable. Whether they'll also be able to get a switch bonus without much income or direct debits is a different question.

lr1277

A decision will have to be made as to which is more important: the switching bonus or the interest rate on savings. Please remember if the savings are at the same place as the current account, this is very convenient. The savings could also be at a different institution.

Also some current accounts have a minimum funding requirement. At the moment First Direct (FD) is paying a switching bonus and apparently has no minimum funding requirement. But received wisdom on these forums is that both HSBC and FD are tough banks to join. Edited to add: each current account application will leave a hard seach on the applicant's credit file. Again received wisdom suggests not having more than 2-3 hard searches every 3-6 months. I mention FD as I find them to be very good.

Have a look at this page which lists banks, funding requirements and any current switching bonus. There is also a search facility on a few criteria on the left hand side of the page:

https://www.finder.com/uk/current-accounts

Rob5342

There's no need to limit themselves to one account. I'd uae Monzo or Starling for the main current account as their apps are by far the best, have a savings account somewhere else that offers the best interest as the app doesn't matter too much there, and habe a second current account to switch round different banks to get the switching bonuses

SiliconChip

Accounts at 2 banks may help with funding requirements too, in almost all cases there is no need to make a single payment of the required amount, multiple payments in the relevant period will also count. So for instance, if the requirement is £1000 per month, paying in £500, transferring it out to the other bank then paying it back in again will meet that requirement.

Nasqueron

Santander have the Edge Saver, if you ensure you don't activate the fee for the Edge accounts, it's 6% on balances up to £4000, paid monthly. No idea about the security aspects, I don't have any issues with the app and nothing in the news about any issues.