Premium Banking - worth it?

[Jonboy_t]

I've been offered a premium banking service from Barclays at a heavily discounted rate. Does anyone here have one and would you recommend going ahead with it?

Some of the benefits do seem pretty nice, but they want to charge me £12.50 a month for it, and I'm just not sure if it is £150 a years worth of 'nice'!

[davepoth]

Add it up. Most of the benefits are stuff you already have (travel insurance etc.) so you can work out how much it will save.

[Frankthered]

davepoth said:

Add it up. Most of the benefits are stuff you already have (travel insurance etc.) so you can work out how much it will save.

This is the thing to do, you can come up with a number to see what the value of the benefits is. Watch out though that the benefits included in the package match your expectations. When I was offered the premium service from HSBC, the breakdown cover included was pretty basic and I don't think it was possible to upgrade it.

Fine if it suits your needs, but if you want something more ...

[mcflurry]

Ours is £8 from LTSB and covers

mobile phone insurance - Android
mobile phone insurance - Apple
(joint a/c covers both)

plus Euro travel insurance -£30 pa?
Sentinel card cover -£20 pa?
Basic AA-£40 pa
£10 overdraft facility - £0

[Jonboy_t]

Based on the sums, it seems like a brilliant idea which is why I was considering it to begin with, but I'm jsut not sure that (as mentioned above) the benefits are going to be as good as a package deal as I have now seperately, or indeed if I would actually use them!

[Ungarsee]

I work as a Premier RM for said bank and if you've been offered it at £12.50 per month then someone's telling porkies. In short you can have Premier Life with all the bells and whistles for £17.50 per month and this is discounted from £25 per month assuming you qualify (no other discounts apply for this account). The other option is a Premier Current Account at £10 per month which has no additional benefits. This one is the only one that can be discounted BUT only if you have £150k in deposits / investments with said bank or a turnover of £150k per annum.

As has been said above the Premier Life account is worth it if you use the benefits. Having sold this since 2008 the ones most will use are the RAC cover (full European), World wide multi trip travel insurance and VIP airport lounge access (done through Airport Angels so google them to see if the airports you use are covered). Over and above this its the usual mobile phone cover, gadget insurance (£500 of cover) etc etc.

Over and above this your Relationship Manager is key. Thankfully I'm not branch based and mainly look after the personal side of fairly chunky Corporate clients but some of the branch RM's have recently been 'fast tracked' and are, in short, sales monkeys and will try and push every product under the sun on you and then you'll never hear from them again. Sit down with who ever your RM is to be and see if you actually like / trust them. If you're based anywhere near London feel free to PM me and I can let you know if I know someone good in your area.

[GeraldSmith]

Ungarsee said:

Sit down with who ever your RM is to be and see if you actually like / trust them.

Then wait 5 minutes and see if you get on with the next one and the next one and the next one.

[Jonboy_t]

Ungarsee said:

I work as a Premier RM for said bank and if you've been offered it at £12.50 per month then someone's telling porkies. In short you can have Premier Life with all the bells and whistles for £17.50 per month and this is discounted from £25 per month assuming you qualify (no other discounts apply for this account). The other option is a Premier Current Account at £10 per month which has no additional benefits. This one is the only one that can be discounted BUT only if you have £150k in deposits / investments with said bank or a turnover of £150k per annum.

As has been said above the Premier Life account is worth it if you use the benefits. Having sold this since 2008 the ones most will use are the RAC cover (full European), World wide multi trip travel insurance and VIP airport lounge access (done through Airport Angels so google them to see if the airports you use are covered). Over and above this its the usual mobile phone cover, gadget insurance (£500 of cover) etc etc.

Over and above this your Relationship Manager is key. Thankfully I'm not branch based and mainly look after the personal side of fairly chunky Corporate clients but some of the branch RM's have recently been 'fast tracked' and are, in short, sales monkeys and will try and push every product under the sun on you and then you'll never hear from them again. Sit down with who ever your RM is to be and see if you actually like / trust them. If you're based anywhere near London feel free to PM me and I can let you know if I know someone good in your area.

Great avice, thank you. This began when I was offered the £17.50 package and had a chat with the local RM about it (in Southampton, so not near London unfortunately). I spoke to him about a few people I know who would also qualify and in true northerner style, asked for a group discount and he kindly obliged (or so it seemed!).

After what you say above about it being porkies, I'm going to check it out on Monday, but he basically said that as I could introduce a couple of other people to his services, he would apply some kind of discount to make it £12.50 per month on the proviso that the two others who I had recommended did actually sign up, which they did (or are doing).

In your professional opinion, are the services that are included on par/under par/better than if I was to sign up to, say, Green Flag for my breakdown etc (or equivalent on the other services)?

[Ungarsee]

Jonboy_t said:

Great avice, thank you. This began when I was offered the £17.50 package and had a chat with the local RM about it (in Southampton, so not near London unfortunately). I spoke to him about a few people I know who would also qualify and in true northerner style, asked for a group discount and he kindly obliged (or so it seemed!).

After what you say above about it being porkies, I'm going to check it out on Monday, but he basically said that as I could introduce a couple of other people to his services, he would apply some kind of discount to make it £12.50 per month on the proviso that the two others who I had recommended did actually sign up, which they did (or are doing).

In your professional opinion, are the services that are included on par/under par/better than if I was to sign up to, say, Green Flag for my breakdown etc (or equivalent on the other services)?

I'd be extremely surprised if he can offer it for £12.50 per month as the only people that pay £12.50 per month are staff who get it a half the normal full price. I guess there's always a chance that his region may be trialing a new scheme but I would be extremely surprised.

With regards to the services, it's extremely difficult to say if they are better than other specific companies but as far as I have seen they are very comprehensive. Have a look at the following Barclays web page and you'll be able to download all of the specific terms and conditions of each benefit. - http://www.barclays.co.uk/PremierBanking/SummaryofPremierLifeBenefits/P1242561497877. In all honesty I have never had a complaint about any of the insurances etc in the 3 years+ we've had it available.

[jinkster]

If you want professional banking and no free phone insurance etc - try Handelsbanken. www.handelsbanken.co.uk

Just been voted UK favourite bank....again!