Be Excellent To Each Other

Right! I've been with HSBC for like, 20 years now, and just been palmed off with a regular bank account instead of a graduate one, so am getting raped for interest on my overdraft. Even if I wasn't overdrawn (hahahaha, yeah right!) then I'd get 0.1% interest on my (scoff) savings. So, reading around, its probably about time I made the jump to a better bank account.

BUT I AM SCARED!

I'm looking at (thanks to that moneysavingexpert man) the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society Account. But alas, I am in Manchester, so.... my question is.... how the fuck do you do all your "in branch" stuff when you haven't got a branch anywhere within a couple hundred miles? I do most everything online these days with HSBC, which is fine, but depositing cheques and cash has to be done in branch, no? I guess depositing cheques can be done via mail (bit risky), but I certainly can't deposit cash via the post, so how the fuck do you do this without a branch. I guess its like those online only banks (Smile/Cahoot/Mint) etc. How do they work if you need to deposit cash etc?

HSBC have never given me problems, but I do like the idea of paying less than half the interest for an overdraft, having a VISA debit card, my money being in the hands of a much more ethical, smaller company etc etc

Impregnate my mind with knowledge, people!

Hmm, cheques by post. but no mention of cash.

Ta, Grim.... I guess those who bank with someone online only like Cahoot would know. Anyone?

I'd imagine that you could pay it in at most banks, just like paying a bill.
But I might be wrong.

Abbey are doing a rather attractive current account, as are Halifax (if you can stand the adverts).

I'm mainly looking at a bank account with very low overdraft interest rate, as its gonna be a few more years before I get into the black. Also, having banked with Halifax while a student, I am NEVER getting an account with them again after the utter crap they kept pissing me around with.

I'll probs ring N&P to have a word, see what they say.

I bank with Cahoot. They did have a scheme whereby you could pay in cheques via any post office, though there is a good chance that has gone now - worth checking just in case.

The reason I don't know is that I am Mr Personal Finance and so have a few bank accounts - some unused for a while, opened and used for a bit so they'd give me the introductory £100 and then unused as soon as they were unacceptable (and it's goodbye weird NatWest and "ooh, can we sell you something else at the cashier desk" Lloyds). First Direct have a 'free' overdraft (on which you pay interest) and Cahoot an actually free one (on which you don't pay), but both are quite small. I have a Nationwide as my overspill, because they let you take out money abroad at a proper exchange rate with no fees, and pay any odd cheques I get into there.

Cheques are fairly safe in the mail, too - keep a note of the number and you can trace it back, surely.

All these things are subject to the curse of the anecdote - as soon as one person has a bad experience with one bank they tend to damn them - but still, I'd recommend Cahoot, suggest avoiding First Direct like the worker-drone rubbish they are (er, not that I worked there or anything, oh no, certainly not), consider Halifax or Alliance and Leicester for their good interest rates (it makes very little difference really, but who manages to move every spare pound out of their current account at the optimum time, so I still get a few quid a year as a result) and above all else avoid anyone charging a monthly fee.

Oh, and as a general principle - change! You don't even have to do the official "fill in a moving pack" thing - just open another account, move the direct debits over at your leisure, use them both for a while or whatever. Even that way is dead straightforward - with online banking you always know how many direct debits/standing orders you have so shifting them is not some arcane "how do I find the info" thing.

Abbey are doing an interest-free overdraft for 12 months, I think (could be 6).

I'm thinking, I might be better off going for a bank that as good "in credit" facilities as N&P (ie Abbey, ta Grim... or Nationwide), who are less obscure, and then keep jumping my overdraft debt onto a few zero APR credit cards until it is paid off instead.

Cheers for all that info, JBR. You've got me thinking that a Nationwide account might be a good idea now. I seriously like the idea of not being charged to draw cash/sponds in foreign monies while abroad. That's something I've been looking for a lot in a Credit Card as I go to Europe at least a couple times a year and the usual shopping on the net from cheapo america thing too. I'll look into that one defo. So, with that, you don't pay any commission fee for the money exchange, and also, withdrawing cash, doesn't incur a cash machine fee either? if so, that's brill.

ta

I stopped using Coutts when they started advertising.

And the welsh bird in the flat above me had a Coutts account as well. I decided it was time to move my money elsewhere.

I bank with the Co-op. Haven't ever needed to go to a branch, which is good as there isn't one in fifty miles, and haven't worried about paying in cheques because, er, I never get cheques these days. Haven't had one since I got the account.

Absolutely - I've used it to take money out in several countries, checked the exchange rate when I've got back and whatever Google's told me has been slightly better or slightly worse than what I got from Nationwide - they really do take the exchange rate at the moment, and no added fee. It's a debit card, not sure whether the credit card does the same. The one slight gotcha that might happen is if you pay for a hotel room or something they can flip a switch, as it were, and charge you in pounds - many will do that automatically, and I suppose it would be better for most. But then you get their exchange rate, not Nationwide's. But for things like, e.g. buying tickets in a machine (I bought a carnet in Paris, for instance) and so on, good value is yours.

I'd apply for the credit cards first - there are relatively few 0% ones around, and they'll have tightened their internal credit ratings till the pips squeak, so make sure you've got one before embarking on any action that absolutely requires it.

Ace, cheers JBR. After more researching today, I'm set on the Nationwide account, sounds perfect for my usage. I'm a dab hand at applying for credit cards, so I've got that under control too Goes with having mountains of debt from doing my MA, bouncing money from CC to CC for years, but got it all in control... just. Luckily I'm meticulously organised so my credit rating is pretty solid because of all this money borrowing

thanks mate.

I bank with Smile (the online version of the Co-op).

Paying cheques or cash can be done at any post office (assuming the government hasnt closed them all down) , you can also pay in cheques by putting them into an envelope with a paying in slip and sending them off to a freepost address.

Things that i like about Smile are :

It has an ethical stance and from what i can see actually does follow this

Easy to move money around between accounts - paying bills / sending cash / setting up payments are all very quick.

When I have contacted them by phone , yes you get through to a call centre but one which seems to have at least people who know what your talking about (unlike some others where you spend 5 minutes explaining the simplest concepts to people)

I used to bank with Clydesdale but found that when i moved from Scotland to England they had no branches and I struggled for around a month or two just trying to do 'normal' stuff - this was around 8 or 9 years ago and there was not much of a choice for 'online' stuff but smile seemed to tick all the right boxes for me.

BTW more a personal thing but after all the rubbish i've had from them over the last 6 months i'd avoid anything at all to do with Barclays :-)

(If by the line above I even slightly influence one person not to deal with them I'd be happy)