UK Current account advice

[TSR2]

Hi Ian,

I don't do credit cards anymore, a promise I made myself about 8 years ago. The company don't do company credit cards. (unless your a director or one of the brown nosing yes men) I'm probably a bit too honest with the powers that be to fall into the later category

[ianhind]

I think the current company expenses systems assumes everyone has a credit card. Which is fine so long as it's not maxed out, or you've got one

Bit of a shock to the system when I moved from an old world company where plane tickets, hotels, etc were all booked and paid for by the company in advance (ok scroll back to pre-2001) to a service industry where all is paid for by the individual and then claimed back. Fortunately I'm too far down the greasy pole (despite efforts to move me up) to travel much. But for some people balancing those costs with normal living costs could stretch credit card limits.

Ian

[Vancouver]

Cheers matey, but is Halifax not using the old Bank of Scotland system at the moment? (or Visa Versa)

I don't understand what that means, nothing has changed as far as I can see in all the years I have been using it. Any TX's are instantaneous and show up within seconds with a refresh.

[DaveB]

Hi Ben

I've been with the Midland Bank (now HSBC of course) since 1976 (the same branch too!). I honestly don't know how they compare in real terms with the others but as far as financial stability goes.. I've never had a fear of them 'going under'. During the banking crisis, HSBC were one of only a small number who didn't want the cash handout from the Bank of England but were forced to take it. I guess the reason being that they're as tight as a nun's habit!

I had a business account with them too when we had the pub and they charged us for absolutely everything except buying 'change' and the only reason we weren't charged for this was we threatened to move our business!

Transactions show instantly.. as soon as I pay anything, the money shows as gone from my account. The longest transaction 'time wise' I have is paying off my credit card (which thankfully, is usually almost zero). This can take up to 2hrs to show as paid on the card (it's an HSBC Visa) although the money has gone from my current account the moment I hit the 'confirm payment' button. I only have 2 manual online payments.. the HSBC Visa credit card and my council tax. The remainder are direct debit. My mortgage and house insurance is also with HSBC so they pretty much own me

I've not had an overdraft facility on my current account for years but we were charged a standard rate for the one on our business account which we always needed. They would undoubtedly charge for an overdraft on a personal account too.

Bottom line..
They're probably not the cheapest bank to be with but I can't be arsed to move at this stage. Their online banking is quick and transactions between accounts is instant.. especially transactions between HSBC accounts. I'm no longer in a position to have to 'pay' someone so I couldn't say if transactions to other banks is any slower. One thing is for sure though. As soon as you confirm payment.. the money is gone from your account

ATB
DaveB

[Dev One]

I've been with HSBC since back in the 80's when it was Midland. I find the online banking very easy, but as I use it little for debit card transactions in France I cannot vouch for the speediness of response, although it seems to react daily to standard standing orders. I do find their online transfer/payment to others easy & so far good. I have an small standard overdraft facility which I have never used & have not yet received any charges. It has a regular small input of one of my pensions thats paid in sterling. For my credit card I use Nationwide, which is useful in France because of, so far, lack of charges when buying in Euros. Trouble with French banking is that everything is charged for, cheque books, debit cards, even more for credit cards.......although their online service very good so far.
Keith

[Tomliner]

Like Dave and Keith I'm with HSBC(since 1970!) and would echo much of what Dave says.I would also add that I find their 'Express Banking' machines very handy for carrying out various transactions in branch. EricT

[DaveB]

Ben..

I'm pretty sure I can confirm what Keith said about the overdraft facility. I used to have (many moons ago) an agreed amount I could go overdrawn and can't remember being charged for this if it were not used. The one on the business account was ALWAYS used but business and personal accounts differ greatly so this shouldn't bother you.

A slight devation from the theme but to do with banking. Not sure how the Army or RAF operated but, again, years ago.. all RN establishments had a tiny Lloyds Bank on site so many matelots joined. They were handy and matelots don't walk too far I stayed fortnightly paid until I got drafted to Nato in Portugal where I HAD to have a bank account (I found out when I got there) I can remember the poor chaps who were with Lloyds getting threatening letters and (then) large penalty charges for going overdrawn just a few days before pay day.. as if the MoD were suddenly not going to pay them! Banking has moved on in 40 years but I vowed never to go with Lloyds as a consequence.

ATB
DaveB

[Motormouse]

We were er, encouraged, to go to Lloyds as well in RAF, due to the on-base bank like wot Dave talks about.
Something to do with another associate of Lloyds being used by HMG for processing all our pay, and not having to wait
until 3 days after pay day to get your hands on it (we were always skint in training!!)

We use 3 banks now, HSBC,LLoyds, and Barclays for different things, Natwest closed too many branches locally.

ttfn

Pete

[speedbird591]

Can any of you who use online banking with banks other than Natwest / RBS advise if their banks online services show the real available balance if that makes sense.

Hi Ben. I can confirm that Barclays online screen shows:

Current Cleared Balance
Last Night's Balance

As you'd expect, Which? regularly surveys their members about current accounts and they've arranged the results in 4 different tables depending on what's important to you. Rather than spend a lot of time sifting through the info, I've just grabbed screenshots of the tables in case you're interested.









Note that they don't recommend using Santander or BoS due to reports of consistently poor service over several years.

Ian

[NigelC]

I was with National and Provincial Building Society. I sort of got taken along for the ride when it became Abbey National/Abbey/Santander. I've never had any problems with them. Just my experience.

N