Bank accounts

Glaucus said:
Its an incentive, and somethign you have to use, which as explained allready costs way more. Travel insurance on its own is worth more than £125.



Its not minimum effort though is it. I dont get paid mon thly and allready paln to open up two acocun ts i would prefer them with same bank, but looks likeit'll be two dependin how much needs ro be paid. 1k is a hell of a lot to lose for several days. Especially when dd dont line up with pay dates and those pay dates change every month.
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How does it cost more? I don't understand how it's costing me money to have a First Direct account?

I presume you aren't familiar with standing orders and faster payments? You'll never have several days where £1k is floating in thin air unable to use...
 
First Direct. Superb online, still able to use branches, telephone answered straight away, £125.00 credited to join, totally fee and interest free £250.00overdraft (unlike most high street banks).

And quality customer service, unlike Metro bank.

What's not to like?
 
Orch said:
Ha, I didn't realise it was you that started the thread. Asks for advice, then tells everyone else they're wrong. :rolleyes:

Make your own mind up if you know everything already FFS. :rolleyes:
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:rolleyes:
Ive got lots of extremely helpful advice thanks, funny how it goes to pot when it gets moved to GD. Dis you read OP. jumping through hoops, or having a worse account in. The long run, I do not deem good value for £125 one off perk.
If you think its a good perk, you haven't done the maths or require different services. If you read OP, its more asking for certain details, more than advice. I know what I need, I cant find certain info out like security and online swift transfers.
 
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Glaucus said:
Which is my point.
So spending acocunt, dd account, then somehow fund FD for a few days, ehen ikts allready stupidly complicated to work out what i ac tuallyy have at any one point, due to not being paiid monthly.
Means i allready keep a spread sheet so i can just work out exactly what i have.
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Now that you've expanded your posts with some more info I can see your point that in your case it's a bit most hassle.
For a lot of people it's as simple as setting up a SO for the day you get paid so it goes straight out and then comes back before you even notice.
 
rossk26 said:
How does it cost more? I don't understand how it's costing me money to have a First Direct account?

I presume you aren't familiar with standing orders and faster payments? You'll never have several days where £1k is floating in thin air unable to use...
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DD are not fast payment and in deed spend several days floating in air. Or certainly not on the three bank accounts I've had recently.
1k is a huge amount of money to take out of an account for a few days. Even on a good month, thats 50%.
 
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PapaLazaru said:
First Direct. Superb online, still able to use branches, telephone answered straight away, £125.00 credited to join, totally fee and interest free £250.00overdraft (unlike most high street banks).

And quality customer service, unlike Metro bank.

What's not to like?
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Card reader, cash/purchase abroad, swift payments, small overdraft charges. For a start, before we even start looking at premium accounts, like travel, phone insurance, breakdown etc.
 
I looked at that Santander 123 current account, and after using their online calculator I would only make £60 a year after the £24 fee.

I'll have another look, but it didn't seem worth the hassle.
 
EVH said:
Using http://www.santander-products.co.uk/banking/calculator/123dual.html

I come out with £83 after the £24 annual fee. That's a whopping ~£7 a month :p

Could save a lot more if I had the credit card, but I don't want it.
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That's before tax too I presume? As the calculator doesn't take that into consideration

Glaucus said:
:rolleyes:
Yeah cos thats the only important thing isn't it?
Read the OP i listed the. Most important thing.
Santander like the others have gone onto a spreadsheet.
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Your OP emphasised on internet security and not wanting to carry around a card reader to log in...

It wasn't until later you revealed most of your bank dealing was cash, and you wanted a bank account to offer you motorbike breakdown and annual travel insurance. So therefore your emphasis has changed from wanting a nice UI and simple log in online bank account to an account which offers you incentives for paying a monthly fee
 
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Probably, like I said I've only messed around with the calculator and gone off the raw figures.

Shame that they lay the best cashback (fuel and shopping) on the credit card, because I have my mortgage with them and would probably switch for the cashback otherwise.
 
EVH said:
Shame that they lay the best cashback (fuel and shopping) on the credit card, because I have my mortgage with them and would probably switch for the cashback otherwise.
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I'm guessing you don't like the idea of using a credit card? I used to have that mentality too, but now I use mine on a regular basis.

It will be even better in the case of Santander, as the money will remain in your current account accruing interest, while spending on the CC generates cashback too. Just set up a DD to pay it off each month, and if it's timed around the same time your pay goes in then it shouldn't affect anything really.

You just have to keep tabs on your spending a bit more. As your current account balance obviously isn't going down as you spend :p
 
rossk26 said:
That's before tax too I presume? As the calculator doesn't take that into consideration



Your OP emphasised on internet security and not wanting to carry around a card reader to log in...

It wasn't until later you revealed most of your bank dealing was cash, and you wanted a bank account to offer you motorbike breakdown and annual travel insurance. So therefore your emphasis has changed from wanting a nice UI and simple log in online bank account to an account which offers you incentives for paying a monthly fee
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I listed the three main points and they are still the main points, the phone insurance etc are secondry. fD doesnt even cover the main. Points though, except maybe card reader(but that is a may be).
So noo n othings changhed at all, those three things are still the Most important. I didnt list incentive as a main point but as you and others kept brining it up as some holy grail I showed how it wasn't an incnetive and costs more compared to other banks. I can easil see what bonuses accounts have, i cant easily see security or if swift can be done on line. And cash abroad seems to be small banks or building societies, so Included that, in case someone new any other non main stream ones.
 
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rossk26 said:
I'm guessing you don't like the idea of using a credit card? I used to have that mentality too, but now I use mine on a regular basis.

It will be even better in the case of Santander, as the money will remain in your current account accruing interest, while spending on the CC generates cashback too. Just set up a DD to pay it off each month, and if it's timed around the same time your pay goes in then it shouldn't affect anything really.

You just have to keep tabs on your spending a bit more. As your current account balance obviously isn't going down as you spend :p
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That's exactly the reason why I don't want a CC :D

Plus, I have 5 accounts that I use to manage my money. Pay goes in on 23/24th and from there (set up for 25th of the month) I have standing orders set up to transfer the required amount in to each account. The DDs leave the "bills" account on the 1st, so there's never an issue with no funds.

There is 1 for personal, 1 for joint, 1 for bills, 1 for personal saving and 1 for joint saving.

Essentially, as my money is split up between these I can allow myself approx £100 a month to spend as I like without going crazy. Same for the joint account (we keep around £300 a month in there for food shopping and consumables). This way, I know that when I check my balance on my phone I can see exactly what is left in my personal account and our joint account, and the bills have been taken care of automagically.

Plus if our cards are compromised, at least the bills are still getting paid in the background and the thieves can't take it all as there's no overdrafts.

Of course, this means keeping tabs on gas & elec bills to ensure the standing orders are accurate, but I do this once every few months anyway.

I'm not saying I have no control, but unless I set up multiple accounts I guess it's too complicated to migrate to Santander and use a credit card for this.
 
Glaucus said:
can you list your bank acocunt security and if it has foreign account transfer, thhose are the two most important bits.
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I'm fairly sure these were your main important bits. So we have came along and informed you of our existing current accounts UI and security log on settings for current accounts we have.

Then you went on to say the FD account would cost you money. As you now wanted a bank to offer you annual travel insurance, motorbike breakdown and mobile phone insurance.

So like I say, you moved the goalposts from the OP. So it's understandable you've annoyed people by knocking them back when they are giving you genuine good advice based on your OP.
 
I havent mobpbed the ggoal posts at all, just go away.
Everyone kkept harping on about £125 being so good its not. So its n ot a no brianer is it. Especially when it doesnt fullfill the main criteria.
 
rossk26 said:
You don't seem to take advice very well.
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Relaly? 90% of the posts have been great and helped me a lot.

Repeating £125 is some holy grail is not usefull then telling me its usefull doesnt make ot so. Again they dont offer anything else(online swift? No, free cash/purchase abroad? No, security, introducing card reader maybe opt-out but not 100%, more expensive swift charge compared to others as well), secondly its not even the best, would save more on santander 123 everysingle year, rather than a one off.
The fact you can't comphend, that trying to explain why £125 isnt as good as it sounds, doesnt change the main criteria.

At the moment first direct gets one second place rating for £125 and no other good stuff.
Green top of the class, blue second best.
s4fa.jpg
 
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