Changing banks question?

shep_no_platinum

shep_no_platinum

shep_no_platinum

Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
Posts
3,292
Location
Blackpool
Hey guys,

Me and my fiancé want to set up a joint bank account that we both use as our main bank account.

We are both currently with HSBC and have been for 10+ years. Our accounts are separate but making them joint is a simple process. However after looking at all of the accounts out there, Santander offer the best in terms of cashback, overdraft facilities and savings interest.

The question is: if I change Santander to my main bank where wages get paid in etc and make it a joint with my fiancé, how will it effect my credit score? The reason I ask is because the question that is always asked on loan, finance, mortgage applications is "how long have you been with current bank?"

Thanks

Shep.
 
shep_no_platinum said:
Hey guys,

Me and my fiancé want to set up a joint bank account that we both use as our main bank account.

We are both currently with HSBC and have been for 10+ years. Our accounts are separate but making them joint is a simple process. However after looking at all of the accounts out there, Santander offer the best in terms of cashback, overdraft facilities and savings interest.

The question is: if I change Santander to my main bank where wages get paid in etc and make it a joint with my fiancé, how will it effect my credit score? The reason I ask is because the question that is always asked on loan, finance, mortgage applications is "how long have you been with current bank?"

Thanks

Shep.
Click to expand...

Keep both your current accounts open (indefinitely) and just pay in enough % of your wage each month to the Santander/joint account to cover the bills and rent etc. I would also transfer the DDs yourself given Santander’s reputation.

IMO, changing from HSBC to Santander is a….well good luck with that.
 
On a more related note I did exactly this - moved from HSBC to Santander - with no issues. I get 5% AER on in credit balances up to £2.5k and easy access to the best in market instant access savings account at 3.1% APR.

It has made zero difference to my ability to get credit.

Everyone moans about Santander but I've only had a single issue - when they charged me £4 in overdraft fee's after they took a 50p charge out of my other current account I held which had a zero balance without telling me - and they refunded them without quibbling.
 
[TW]Fox;20020268 said:
On a more related note I did exactly this - moved from HSBC to Santander - with no issues. I get 5% AER on in credit balances up to £2.5k and easy access to the best in market instant access savings account at 3.1% APR.

It has made zero difference to my ability to get credit.

Everyone moans about Santander but I've only had a single issue - when they charged me £4 in overdraft fee's after they took a 50p charge out of my other current account I held which had a zero balance without telling me - and they refunded them without quibbling.
Click to expand...

sometimes decisions may look good, and technically may be the best / ideal product on paper, but they don't always pan out how you expect.

feedback from people I know with Santander has not been positive,
 
It went exactly as expected and I have now been with them for 18 months.

I frequently switch current accounts for the best product, will be doing so again soon for the Santander Zero account.
 
Santander do have issues - they don't support outbound Faster Payments properly (first payment to a payee goes by BACS, max of £300 per day) but they are desperate for market share in the UK and so the deals that they offer are crazy. Right now they're offering £300 cashback if you have a mortgage with them and switch your current account and 10k in savings to them!

Moving on to the original question - I switched to First Direct about a year ago and have had no problems getting credit since. I don't think financial institutions care so much about 'time with bank' nowadays. Just remember that if you open a joint account with somebody else, both of your credit files are linked so if one of you has adverse data it can affect the other when applying for credit.
 
I moved from HSBC to First Direct (although same group), got the cashback and have literally not loved them enough since. I had no issues when I was on HSBCs Advance account either as it didn't cost me anything after I negotied a stay (before moving to FD). FD customer service is what banks used to be like 20, even 15 years ago, when you rang the bank, someone answered straight away, no automated messages.

From personal experience (with the Abbey albeit), I would probably avoid them like the plague and would never in a million years touch them for a mortgage.
 
chigley said:
Thanks so much for this! Been trying to work out their system for ages, it always seemed random before now!

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

To slightly improve the most stupid implementation of faster payments.

Pay the new person £1 on day one then on Day two you can pay the rest and it will go through faster payments the same day, then on day three the £1 will arrive.
 
POB said:
To slightly improve the most stupid implementation of faster payments.

Pay the new person £1 on day one then on Day two you can pay the rest and it will go through faster payments the same day, then on day three the £1 will arrive.
Click to expand...

Good idea! I agree that their faster payments is stupid, but the top interest rates make up for that ;)

Thanks very much for the advice, I'll definitely bear it in mind in the future!
 
Lucero said:
I moved from HSBC to First Direct (although same group), got the cashback and have literally not loved them enough since. I had no issues when I was on HSBCs Advance account either as it didn't cost me anything after I negotied a stay (before moving to FD). FD customer service is what banks used to be like 20, even 15 years ago, when you rang the bank, someone answered straight away, no automated messages.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with you, I often wonder why I didn't join First Direct sooner!
 
Whilst I accept that customer service differs hugely between banks and that somebody like Santander has terrible CS whereas First Direct are first rate.. why do people place so much weighting on it?

I almost never need to talk to anyone in my bank - everything is done online. The fact that the once a year occasion I need to speak to somebody might be less than fantastic isn't going to prioritise itself above the product in question and I'm not sure why it ever should.
 
I set up a joint account with my partner at Halifax recently - total bonus at that time was £50 for transferring my monthly credits from NatWest to Halifax and also £40 from TopCashback for setting up an account there. You get a flat £5/month reward for every month you pay in more than £1500, and also access to the higher-tier savings rates (3.2% for their cash ISA).

I still use my NatWest account as my normal current account (graduate account = shedload of overdraft) but we use the Halifax one for joint expenditure. My partner still pays most of her stuff into her Lloyds TSB Vantage account as she doesn't like the fuss of having money in lots of different places (which doesn't bother me at all :p).
 
faster payments with HSBC are brilliant for me (£10k daily limit), doing transfers to one of our nationwide bank accs is instant and paying any utilities and CC companies that offer it, and which I don't have DDs with, is usually instant or well within the 2 hour slot they offer.

i wouldn't change from HSBC unless I was going to get significant returns and not just a few pounds extra in interest.
 
[TW]Fox;20021663 said:
Whilst I accept that customer service differs hugely between banks and that somebody like Santander has terrible CS whereas First Direct are first rate.. why do people place so much weighting on it?

I almost never need to talk to anyone in my bank - everything is done online. The fact that the once a year occasion I need to speak to somebody might be less than fantastic isn't going to prioritise itself above the product in question and I'm not sure why it ever should.
Click to expand...

That's probably because all you've ever had to deal with is just a bank account.

I applied for a mortgage with Abbey 2 years ago. Not my first mortgage by any stretch of the imagination but I had been out of owning property for a while.

They offered me the loan and AIP and said they would conduct a survey with an up front fee of £500. I paid, they did their survey and all was well. Until about three weeks before I was due to move in, they said "oh, sorry, we're revising our offer". They offered £15k less which made it impossible for me to continue. This "practice" of theirs was highlighted on the MSE forums with "stay well" advice shortly after my experience. I approached another lender and got a much better deal (rates had dropped in the time it took Abbey to faff around with the offer), so it worked in my favour although they wouldn't refund the valuation fee or trasnfer it to the new lender (which is normally best practice in these situations). They also said I wouldn't be able to have the mortage at all unless I transferred my current account to them (which technically / legally, they aren't allowed to force).

That kind of thing normally leaves a bad taste in the mouth regardless of how good a product is.

Transferring banks though, I agree, is a far far easier process than it was 5 to 10 years ago. Although I hear transferring from Santander is still a process to behold :)
 
Lucero said:
That's probably because all you've ever had to deal with is just a bank account.
Click to expand...

And this is a thread about choosing a bank account. For financial services products which do require a high level of customer service I'd place customer service higher up than 'the bottom' of my list of priorities.
 
Which is the difference. My bank account is far far from the bottom of my list of priorities. It virutally does everything for me (bar my mortgage) and therefore, I rate the ability to instantly talk to someone far higher than the odd extra pound in interest.

Loyalty with banks scores far higher points for me than me trying to secure the best product around (IMO)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom