Please talk to me like I am 5 re a bank account

[theveg]

Please excuse my cluelessness with this area......

How much of a pita is it to close a bank account and just switch to a different bank?

My current bank is dreadful but I've been put off changing because of the hassle of changing all Direct Debits, switching my pay to pay into a different account. Is there anything else I need to think of?

Also can anyone recommend a good savings account?

Thanks!

For savings look at Chase.

I currently have 7 current accounts for various benefits and switching bonuses. Lloyds is good for every day, got First Direct as they gave a £150 bonus and my original Natwest one plus joint accounts. I use Chase for paying petrol and parking at work to keep it separate....they are very good.

It's useful as whenever there is a switching bonus then i can change one of them over to get the money. We've made around £800 this year from just switching.

I've used First Direct for years and very happy with them. I think they are doing a £150 bonus at the moment for transferring to them. Look up Martin Lewis, he always has the best ones to change to.
Two of my sons are both with Starling and again very happy with them. They don't do a switching bonus though.

Transferring accounts is very easy, the bank you decide to go with do it all for you.

We've had our main account with First Direct for years . Customer service is great, but if you are looking at a linked savings account, they pay rubbish interest
I have another account with Virgin and the linked savings is much better. Its fairly easy to manage through their app

Sorry, switching to Virgin from Lloyds was easy, they did everything and sent a list of direct debits for me to check

Plus don't forget, if something looks too good to be true then it normally is. MSE is great at laying out all the conditions to show what you get with each type of account as they all come with features and conditions designed to dazzle you and incentivise you to switch to them.

£100 incentive could have conditions attached ie needing to keep a certain monthly balance, having salary paid in every month, having to incur a monthly charge, having to pay more for overdraft, etc etc. not all at once but these a few examples of conditions bank accounts often come with. They don't give anything for nothing!

Do your research fully before making the move and you'll be fine.

Ask friends and family what they like about their bank account, that can often give you a partial picture about different banks and what they offer.

consider what the new bank's online banking facility is like. I have a bog standard Santander current account, nothing special, but what I really like is that the internet banking facility is fab, great interface, easy to move money in and out and pay bills, lots of counter-fraud measures. Also I've noticed lots of improvements over the years, which is a good sign they invest in the customer experience and take security measures seriously. I've had experience of other banks but so far, I prefer Santander's offering.

My switch should be completed on Tuesday. I'm moving to Santander, and I've chosen one of their 1|2|3 accounts. There's a monthly fee on that, (£4-ish) but they offer cashback on bills and mortgage payments (if you're with them, which I am), as well as interest in the balance, so the fee should be less than the cashback and interest combined. I'll wait and see how it all shakes out but I can always change to a free current account if necessary.

I've always been with Halifax, but they are really behind the times with the products they offer. Example, they wanted me to change to a fee paying current account that costs £15 a month, with very little offered to justify that. Pass.

I'm with starling, i love them. So easy to see where my money is going every month, you can round up your spending and auto transfer the difference into a different pot so you can save without really noticing it. You can set up different spaces to save for things without having to set up different accounts (each space can have a different target on it too). They send you notifications in real time about your spending. You can set up a specific bills space for your direct debits so that you can see what money is earmarked for bills and what is general money.

All these benefits outweigh any switching bonus for me. This is what banking should be like in 2022.

I’m just in the process of switching to the Halifax. Currently has £150 incentive.

I’ve been with Yorkshire Bank for over 30 years but they were bought out by Virgin, who are horrendous. The app often doesn’t load, they stop bank transfers for “fraudulent” reasons, AKA no reason, the call wait time to the fraud department was one hour 12 minutes on Friday. Their live chat are never able to help you with anything and they are well behind other banks in things. They have only recently started name matching when making a payment, and only recently have you been able to link virgin with ClearScore.

i do mums online banking with the Halifax, I like it, I liked their customer service when I had to deal with dads death, I also like they still have lots of branches that are accessible to me.

Branson can kiss my arse.

Thanks everyone

@Itwasntright I am leaning towards Starling for the reasons you mention.

As you can probably tell, I've just muddled along for years with my rubbish coop account without doing any online banking and have just realised how ridiculous this is.

With the cost of living crisis I want to take more control of what I'm doing with my money and so it seems like something like starling would help me with that. I have various different subscriptions for example, no idea when they come out and really think a lot of them are not value for money.

I switched from santander to starling btw. Santanders online banking is still stuck in the past with a million passcodes and things. I got really fed up with it which is why i switched. Id never go back to a traditional account.

I was a bit concerned initially as they don't have any bricks and mortar branches but you can pay cash into your account at any post office. Paying in cheques is as simple as taking a photo of each side of it through the app.

You sound like me. With santander i knew my balance but figuring out anything more than that was a challenge. I had Excel spreadsheets which i had to update every month. Starling will have its best guess at what you bought - for example shopping at the big supermarkets the app will categorise it as groceries so i can right away see that £x was spent on groceries in June. It'll recognise if you buy petrol at a supermarket and will file that under "travel" for eg. You can change the categories so every couple of weeks I'll have a 5 minute look and make sure that it's got them all right.

I've never been so on top of my spending!

I've got an old Barclays account plus Monzo and Chase. The Chase account is the best of them all by a fair way. You get 1% cashback for a year and the instant access savings accounts all offer 1.5% I've got money in lots of different pots all earning a good rate of interest - I don't get that with Monzo. Also, not sure if it's changed, but moving money from a Monzo savings account with interest took 24hrs as it was actually provided by another company. It's instant with Chase.

First direct is great, offers a good switching incentive and has a regular saver which I think is offering interest at 3% atm. Online loan applications etc have been really easy to when I was having renovations done.

I think the rules when you switch is that the new account needs to be your main one so has to have your salary put in and X number of direct debits. There's nothing stopping you having other accounts in addition to this though and transferring money across. I use first direct for my salary and bills and an old Halifax one for CB and WTC and my Help to Save account.

For savings the govt Help to Save account is well worth opening if you are eligible.

Martin Lewis's last email reminded me to get rid of some paper £10 and £20 notes I had so I nipped down to the post office and was able to pay them in to my Starling account - no problem - I just had to stick my card in the reader - didn't even need to enter the pin - handed the cash over and it was credited to my Starling account in under a minute - you get notifications popping up on your phone for every transaction - couldn't have been easier.

I was with Nat west for years & switched to Santander 1/2/3 & they did everything for me, changed all my DD’s over, the lot!

I also used to be with the Co-Op (via Smile) and left. They really haven't moved with the times.

I have a Starling account and a Monzo account and they are both great. They are very similar (I think Monzo was set up by somebody who originally worked at Starling). Yes, you don't get a signing on bonus but personally I find it is so much easier to manage my money to and save, that it is worth it.

You could also switch to e.g. First Direct to get the signing on bonus and then open a Monzo or Starling account for your monthly spending money. That's what I do, and I really like having my disposable income separately from my bills and direct debits.

Thanks everyone

If I use a switching service, does that mean I close my old account? Or could I keep it open? My coop account does have a good overdraft you see.

If you don't have any money coming in they will probably cancel the overdraft facility.

I have starling and Monzo and much prefer Monzo for how easy their app is and the customer service is excellent. The pots are brilliant for budgeting, it’s transformed our finances. Both free. Both got the switching service.

If you have a friend with one of them, ask them for a referral code so you both get a small gift.