borofan
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Post by borofan on Mar 4, 2019 13:11:34 GMT
That First Direct offer is great. I will use that for my next switch.
I do like Nationwide the best though. £100 RAF each. Then in the first year 5% on the first £2.5k in the current account and a linked 5% regular saver, plus they have a decent rate on a Help2Save regular saver, which afaik you can open and earn interest on, even if you don't qualify for the first home purchase bonus. All in all opening a NW account, can be worth about £350.
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aju
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Post by aju on Mar 4, 2019 16:25:34 GMT
First Direct £125 to switch. 5% regular saver, had it for 7+ years. restarts every year. No guarantee it will continue. When I moved they asked if I wanted to close down the other account, said no and used the other account to make switch money. Sadly I've had one of those over 8 years ago I think now, used it up and closed it, as I already have been a customer i don't pass their "first account" so to speak. I've tried getting an HSBC, FD's masters, but they won't even let me in the door either. I guess its cos i'm retired and my incomings seem low for them. Shame really as I have a lot to offer them in some ways perhaps they sniffed me out as a leech. Mrs Aju failed as well but her creds are less than mine so that's not surprising if i'm right.
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aju
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Post by aju on Mar 4, 2019 16:39:56 GMT
That First Direct offer is great. I will use that for my next switch. I do like Nationwide the best though. £100 RAF each. Then in the first year 5% on the first £2.5k in the current account and a linked 5% regular saver, plus they have a decent rate on a Help2Save regular saver, which afaik you can open and earn interest on, even if you don't qualify for the first home purchase bonus. All in all opening a NW account, can be worth about £350. Yeah NW C/A seems a one time only option now, they used to let you come back after a year or so but they seem to have kiboshed that approach in their terms unless anyone knows differently. We do use their RS's though, we have had more than 15 years with and qualify that way and this time around they also improved their online setup for the new application. Not sure how long they will stay at 5% though, The santander dropped theirs to 3% and with Tescos dropping there current to 1% for new people it's getting very tough now. I couldn't find a help2save option on their lists but their "Help2Buy" option seems to have a restriction for the likes of me in that I am a homeowner. Did you mean Save2Buy, but that is closed according to their site.
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Post by df on Mar 4, 2019 16:43:33 GMT
First Direct £125 to switch. 5% regular saver, had it for 7+ years. restarts every year. No guarantee it will continue. When I moved they asked if I wanted to close down the other account, said no and used the other account to make switch money. Sadly I've had one of those over 8 years ago I think now, used it up and closed it, as I already have been a customer i don't pass their "first account" so to speak. I've tried getting an HSBC, FD's masters, but they won't even let me in the door either. I guess its cos i'm retired and my incomings seem low for them. Shame really as I have a lot to offer them in some ways perhaps they sniffed me out as a leech. Mrs Aju failed as well but her creds are less than mine so that's not surprising if i'm right. Sounds strange. I've never had any bank refusing to open an account for me. I've been with FD since the early 90's (and of course used their regular saver since it was introduced), but most other accounts (incl HSBC) I opened within past 5 years or so... the only difficulty I had was with M&S - it took nearly 2 months to open due to their own procedural problems.
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aju
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Post by aju on Mar 4, 2019 16:50:07 GMT
Sadly I've had one of those over 8 years ago I think now, used it up and closed it, as I already have been a customer i don't pass their "first account" so to speak. I've tried getting an HSBC, FD's masters, but they won't even let me in the door either. I guess its cos i'm retired and my incomings seem low for them. Shame really as I have a lot to offer them in some ways perhaps they sniffed me out as a leech. Mrs Aju failed as well but her creds are less than mine so that's not surprising if i'm right. Sounds strange. I've never had any bank refusing to open an account for me. I've been with FD since the early 90's (and of course used their regular saver since it was introduced), but most other accounts (incl HSBC) I opened within past 5 years or so... the only difficulty I had was with M&S - it took nearly 2 months to open due to their own procedural problems. Its not that they have difficulty opening an account its that we don;t pass their criteria "at this time". We are retired and living off private pensions and our investment returns and our pensions values I guess do not fit their criteria for monthly payments. It may also be because they can see we have a lot of accounts across many platforms and they just don't like that - we have closed quite a few though recently so may be worth another try perhaps in a year or so. Or its just our face doesn't fit. My credit rating on all 3 of the top systems does seem to be good by their standards but sadly banks have their own criteria. Since we had an FD account before that would fail so we don;t bother and HSBC is not an obvious choice unless one is in leech mode and trying to just get the sweeteners - I just assume they sniffed us out better. No skin off our backs but we did fail that one and have done for a few years now - we try every so often when all others exhausted. 
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Post by df on Mar 4, 2019 21:12:25 GMT
That First Direct offer is great. I will use that for my next switch. I do like Nationwide the best though. £100 RAF each. Then in the first year 5% on the first £2.5k in the current account and a linked 5% regular saver, plus they have a decent rate on a Help2Save regular saver, which afaik you can open and earn interest on, even if you don't qualify for the first home purchase bonus. All in all opening a NW account, can be worth about £350. Yes, Nationwide is great too. I've used my 5% current account allowance years ago, but still benefit from regular saver - it's been particularly good then it was £500pm 
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aju
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Post by aju on Mar 5, 2019 0:03:03 GMT
I guess some you win and some you lose, the PM calls it Simples!.
Fortunately I don't lose any sleep over it - There are many other places to get the windfalls, NatWest knocked me back on their web system just because I had an old dormant account on their system, a simple case of computer says no, Now waiting for RBS conditions to run their course before we both get a windfall from them, hopefully in May.
I guess there will be some more of them over the next couple of years or so. It's a bit like the savings to be made on the utilities once one sits with the cheapest option the only game to play is finding the next one that saves pennies - one just has to remember that if we did nothing then we would be paying £300 or more again.
Oh yeah while I remember one of those naughty utility boys, the first one in fact, tried to convince us we still owed them money from a few years back. The nice ombudsman sorted them out and us a very nice little compensation deal. I love it when they all screw it up!.
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borofan
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Post by borofan on Mar 5, 2019 11:43:19 GMT
I meant Help2Buy.
It let me open one. Although I don't own my own home which is possibly why. I won't be claiming the bonus, but I still get a half decent interest rate.
I'm going to be putting a couple of old work pensions into Pensionbee.
If anyone is already in that and wants to refer me we get £50 each.
PM me if interested.
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borofan
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Post by borofan on Mar 5, 2019 11:58:22 GMT
Also,
There are some decent rates via Raisin at the moment, including a 2.45% two year fixed account.
There is also a welcome bonus for new customers:
Fixed term deposit Up to £9,999 No bonus available
Fixed term deposit £10,000 to £39,999 £10
Fixed term deposit £40,000 to £74,999 £80
Fixed term deposit £75,000 to £85,000 £100
Plus a refer a friend scheme in which we get £50 each.
If anyone is interested and if it's allowed I will knock back £15 of my bonus (by PayPal) back to you.
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sd2
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Post by sd2 on Apr 8, 2019 10:23:03 GMT
The only bank who knocked me back was HSBC but I have no doubt that was them knowing I had a first direct account. As they own fist direct I shouldn't have done it. I have 4 bank accounts at the moment. My next move will be Tesco (3% on £3000) to M&S. 5% regular saver and £120 to spend at M&S plus £5 a month for one year. Hopefully I haven't had an account with them before! I will pay I the minimum amount each month and take it out the next day leaving behind sufficient money to cover DDs and regular saver. Note I sometime exaggerate my income (if needed) to get an account!
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Post by gravitykillz on Apr 9, 2019 8:32:50 GMT
Tesco 3% on 3k has ended. Or is about to.
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Post by gravitykillz on Apr 9, 2019 8:34:44 GMT
I think the days of high interest rates on current accounts are slowly ending.
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aju
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Post by aju on Apr 9, 2019 9:06:24 GMT
TSB is reducing also from 5% to 3%  July 2nd according to Independent so should be getting a letter soon I guess. Its interesting that TSB said at the time of their debacle IT meltdown that they would not be cynically removing the 5% after a year. 14 months or so still seems a little cynical to me. Just found the statement made at the time Was their illustrious phrase they used (I put in Comic Sans MS as it seemed very appropriate) . They could line up with the politicians I think for integrity. |
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registerme
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Post by registerme on Apr 9, 2019 13:39:02 GMT
TSB is reducing also from 5% to 3% July 2nd according to Independent so should be getting a letter soon I guess. Its interesting that TSB said at the time of their debacle IT meltdown that they would not be cynically removing the 5% after a year. 14 months or so still seems a little cynical to me. Just found the statement made at the time Was their illustrious phrase they used (I put in Comic Sans MS as it seemed very appropriate) . They could line up with the politicians I think for integrity. Well >12 months is "after a year" no? So they've broken their promise (even if it stupidly implied that it would be in place for all eternity). I'd complain .
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aju
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Post by aju on Apr 9, 2019 14:44:22 GMT
TSB is reducing also from 5% to 3% July 2nd according to Independent so should be getting a letter soon I guess. Its interesting that TSB said at the time of their debacle IT meltdown that they would not be cynically removing the 5% after a year. 14 months or so still seems a little cynical to me. Just found the statement made at the time Was their illustrious phrase they used (I put in Comic Sans MS as it seemed very appropriate) . They could line up with the politicians I think for integrity. Well >12 months is "after a year" no? So they've broken their promise (even if it stupidly implied that it would be in place for all eternity). I'd complain . I'm not sure they would be that bothered if I complained about it if twitter comments by TSB is anything to go by!.
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