Switching bank accounts?
Discussion
Apologies if this has been discussed before, but search is down...
Does anyone have experience of switching to any of the following online current accounts?
Smile
Cahoot
Alliance & Leicester
Citibank
First Direct
Smile are my preference at the moment (for a variety of reasons that'll cause this thread to veer off at a tangent if I mention them), but just wondered if anyone has experience of the whole switching process and general levels of service for any of the above?
Part of me thinks it's all too much effort to bother with, but another part of me thinks I should be getting the most for my money.
Does anyone have experience of switching to any of the following online current accounts?
Smile
Cahoot
Alliance & Leicester
Citibank
First Direct
Smile are my preference at the moment (for a variety of reasons that'll cause this thread to veer off at a tangent if I mention them), but just wondered if anyone has experience of the whole switching process and general levels of service for any of the above?
Part of me thinks it's all too much effort to bother with, but another part of me thinks I should be getting the most for my money.
i'm with citibank. superb service so far and i've been with them 4 years i think. i also get a 4.5% interest rate on my current and savings account.
when i phoned up the other day at 4pm for an urgent cheque book (totally my fault) they promised one within 3-5 working days.
it arrived the following morning.
when i phoned up the other day at 4pm for an urgent cheque book (totally my fault) they promised one within 3-5 working days.
it arrived the following morning.
I bought my wife's car from someone with a Cahoot account.
Paid just shy of £21k with 2 bank drafts.
He paid in at a Post Office and the drafts were somehow lost.
Despite having the PO counterfoil showing they'd accepted it, Cahoot said it's not their problem and that he'd need to chase it up with the PO, who of course said that they'd forwarded them to Cahoot.
As a customer you'd expect them to sort it out between themselves but they didn't.
Based on that I'd stay away from Cahoot.
Paid just shy of £21k with 2 bank drafts.
He paid in at a Post Office and the drafts were somehow lost.
Despite having the PO counterfoil showing they'd accepted it, Cahoot said it's not their problem and that he'd need to chase it up with the PO, who of course said that they'd forwarded them to Cahoot.
As a customer you'd expect them to sort it out between themselves but they didn't.
Based on that I'd stay away from Cahoot.
agent006 said:
Don't care about interest rates And their cards look nice.
your a salesmans dream, do you always pay RRP for everything?
banks are generally highly competetive and can give you a lot of money, you are throwing yours away.
a pretty card is really not a good sign! I recommend you seriously review your banking, barclays are the lowest of the low, and you are honestly GIVING money away.
First Direct are exellent, the swap was easy, the online system is good, the phone banking perfect, and you can use HSBC branches.
Agent, some examples for you that you can get elsewhere; 2% cashback on everything you buy, 50x more interest on your current account, 11 years off your mortgage.
In comparison, my banks gave me that much money last year (yes, in ONE year) I went skiing for FREE.
If you buy me a ski holiday every year, I will look after your money!
I'll second First Direct, been with them for 15 years, from phone banking, through Pc banking to internet banking - and just recently started using their banking plus service - aggregates a whole pile of online accounts (other CCs, share accounts, air miles, tescos points, etc) onto one screen, with login to any of them from there.
To me good service from a bank is that I can get the job done without any bother, and I've never had a problem in all that time, and service has been second to none.
(Can I have my referal bonus now, FD?
)
To me good service from a bank is that I can get the job done without any bother, and I've never had a problem in all that time, and service has been second to none.
(Can I have my referal bonus now, FD?
)wanty1974 said:
If you're after a current account with superb online facilities and very very low charges for things like overdrafts, you can't beat Nationwide. Been with them 10 years and they are just wonderful.
I like nationwide. they're a bit arsey over things like making you sign a bit of paper when you want to withdraw cash over the counter and not being bothered about seeing any photo ID (almost as if they naeively expect nobody to ever forge a signature) but they pay 3% on my current account and they have lots of branches so you can mardy at them if things go wrong
I can thoroughly recommend Natwest Primeline (telephone banking).
Any problem I've had they've always sorted it with the minimum of fuss, even when it's an issue with another part of Natwest.
Primeline cannot be compared with the branches who are, at best, lousy.
Granted, the account costs £16 per month but the free Travel Insurance and Green Flag membership more than outweigh this cost.
It also gives double airmiles on purchases using the associated charge card & preferential rates on O/D, etc.
Any problem I've had they've always sorted it with the minimum of fuss, even when it's an issue with another part of Natwest.
Primeline cannot be compared with the branches who are, at best, lousy.
Granted, the account costs £16 per month but the free Travel Insurance and Green Flag membership more than outweigh this cost.
It also gives double airmiles on purchases using the associated charge card & preferential rates on O/D, etc.
stooz said:
Don't care about interest rates And their cards look nice.
your a salesmans dream, do you always pay RRP for everything?
banks are generally highly competetive and can give you a lot of money, you are throwing yours away.
I do have more than one account. But i fail to see the benefit from spending hours searching though accounts to get 5p interest a month instead of 3p. My savings accounts have rather better interest rates, but the current account rarely has much cash in it anyway.
fair enough, it all depends how you are financing things. my current account offsets my mortgage, so is savings me > 5%, so my salary and money manouvers means there can easily be several thousand in there, albeit for short periods.
as I said, its not 3p to me, its a free holiday. thats worth the effort.
as I said, its not 3p to me, its a free holiday. thats worth the effort.
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