Which Bank accounts

MouldyOldDough

The wife and myself have had a joint Flex account with the Nationwide for over 20 years and now want to open individual accounts with debit cards for personal spending - in addition to the flex account.... with a lump sum of around £5000 each to start with - would this be a "current account" ?

a smallish (say £100 per month) can be paid into each account.

So what is the best bank to use ?

If possible interest may be preferable but not necessary

Neil49

Do you want a bank with a high street presence or are you happy to do online only using someone like Starling Bank. 

Starling have debit card accounts that you operate through your smartphone and have instant access savings account giving 4% interest which you can use to topup your debit card account. You have a physical debit card or can use Google wallet or similar to pay via your phone. 

MouldyOldDough

@Neil49

You need a Starling Personal Account to open a Starling Easy Saver account !!

ie) to earn 4% interest

and to open a personal account, you need regular payment into the account of more than £100

JGB1955

MouldyOldDough said:

@Neil49

You need a Starling Personal Account to open a Starling Easy Saver account !!

ie) to earn 4% interest

and to open a personal account, you need regular payment into the account of more than £100

Is that a new requirement?  I don't have regular payments going into my personal account.

EDIT - have just checked and it says 'our account does not have any minimum monthly deposit requirement, and no default fee'.

Zinger549

MouldyOldDough said:

@Neil49

You need a Starling Personal Account to open a Starling Easy Saver account !!

ie) to earn 4% interest

and to open a personal account, you need regular payment into the account of more than £100

Starling don't charge a fee and there is no minimum monthly deposit.

Neil49

MouldyOldDough said:

@Neil49

You need a Starling Personal Account to open a Starling Easy Saver account !!

ie) to earn 4% interest

and to open a personal account, you need regular payment into the account of more than £100

I think you need to reread my post because what I said was that with Starling you have a debit card account which can be topped up from a savings account (which pays 4% interest). It took me about 10 seconds to open the savings account a few weeks ago.

I have absolutely no idea where you got the regular payment requirement from, but there isn't one.

I use Starling on a regular basis both in the UK and the EU and it's great. 

MouldyOldDough

Is there no bank - that pays interest and allows a debit card on one account ?

This- 2 account thing is too much for the OH !

Alternatively - can we open a single personal account and 2 separate attached Easy savers - one each ?

Also - I see that MSE is saying that when you switch to a NEW current account with various banks - there is cashback available (up to £150) - does that mean FULL transfers only - or just new accounts ?

Because we would not be switching - just opening new accounts !

wmb194

MouldyOldDough said:

Is there no bank - that pays interest and allows a debit card on one account ?

This- 2 account thing is too much for the OH !

Alternatively - can we open a single personal account and 2 separate attached Easy savers - one each ?

Also - I see that MSE is saying that when you switch to a NEW current account with various banks - there is cashback available (up to £150) - does that mean FULL transfers only - or just new accounts ?

Because we would not be switching - just opening new accounts !

What do the terms and conditions say? Full switch is usual, not just opening.

Moneyfacts has a list of current accounts paying interest. Note some of them are children's current accounts so read carefully:

https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/current-accounts/high-interest-current-accounts/?quick-links-first=false&product-favorites-first=false

Kroo has a current account with a debit card and pays 3.35% interest on the full balance but it's app only.

https://kroo.com/

Something a bit more esoteric is Trading212, a stockbroker, which offers a debit card with its investment account. 4.6% interest and deposits are partially held in low risk money market funds. App and web browser only though.

https://www.trading212.com/cards

GeoffTF

All the cashback offers that I have seen are for switching accounts, not opening new ones. The bonus bandits here open new burner accounts and then switch them to get the bonus.

wmb194

GeoffTF said:

All the cashback offers that I have seen are for switching accounts, not opening new ones. The bonus bandits here open new burner accounts and then switch them to get the bonus.

You can sometimes find bank account opening cashback offers via Quidco and TopCashback. (Stockbrokers as well.) E.g., GBP35 to open an account with First Direct:

https://www.topcashback.co.uk/first-direct-current-account/

steven141

Kroo sounds like what you are looking for although beware if withdrawing cash you can only withdraw up to £200 per month for free otherwise they charge for ATM withdrawals above that. You also can't put in cash at the post office and they dont have any branches. Otherwise they are pretty decent and have savings pots as well.