Best bank accounts.

[Harry Bloomfield]

I've had another good look, at what's available, and still not found anything conclusive to suit me.

I've worked out - Nat West charge me £24, paid me for my DD's £61.27 for the 12 months, last year, during which I never had less than £5,500, and at the moment 8,750 in the account.

You would think it would be easy, to loan a bank say £5k, for an indefinite period, and have it earn interest, without them setting lots of conditions to accepting the money, where they would pay the interest or not.

Why severally limit how much you can put in the amount you can put in, beyond which you get no interest?

As said, I have an account with KOO, a substantial amounted lodged there, earning reasonable interest. Another separate, identical current account there, earning interest would suit me just fine, but they only permit one account, per customer.

 

[motorbiking]

The whole goal is to give you a nice headline rate and hope you miss the transaction limits.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The whole goal is to give you a nice headline rate and hope you miss the transaction limits.

I'm looking at Wise now, 3.32% rate, no limit, support DD's, the only charge seems to be for supplying a physical card, but they lack CASS. Limited cash withdrawal, or they charge, which we don't use.

They seem to be mostly set up, for International money transfer.

Wise: The international account | Money without borders | Wise United Kingdom

160+ countries, 40 currencies, one account. Save when you send, spend and manage your money internationally.

wise.com

 

[motorbiking]

Wise is great for managing foreign currency. I sometimes get paid in USD or Euro and it’s a great way to avoid rip off bank exchange rates.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Wise is great for managing foreign currency. I sometimes get paid in USD or Euro and it’s a great way to avoid rip off bank exchange rates.

Have I read correctly, that it does support regular DD's for household bill, etc.?

 

[motorbiking]

Have I read correctly, that it does support regular DD's for household bill, etc.?

Honestly I don’t know. I used it for receiving settlements. I originally stumbled across it when I needed to pay for a course in euros.

It was a way of holding currency without unnecessary fees.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Honestly I don’t know. I used it for receiving settlements. I originally stumbled across it when I needed to pay for a course in euros.

It was a way of holding currency without unnecessary fees.

It seems to suggest it does support, all that a normal account can do, Applepay, dd's, works with WPS, it just lacks the CASS. I've opened an account, got it on both apple and google pay, and WPS. I just need to test moving a DD's next. All looks good, so far!

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I'm looking at Wise now, 3.32% rate, no limit, support DD's, the only charge seems to be for supplying a physical card, but they lack CASS. Limited cash withdrawal, or they charge, which we don't use.

They seem to be mostly set up, for International money transfer.

Wise: The international account | Money without borders | Wise United Kingdom

160+ countries, 40 currencies, one account. Save when you send, spend and manage your money internationally.

wise.com

Check their FSCS status. They have some regulation, but I don't see a mention of deposit protection.

It seems to be set up for moving money rather than storing it.

 

[mikehammer69]

Big money i'd be keeping away from accounts that can get drained by the click of a mouse

 

[Mottie]

Big money i'd be keeping away from accounts that can get drained by the click of a mouse

I think most if not all of my accounts with big money in them can only send money to one nominated account - in my case, my Barclays account. I think most accounts are like that these days.

 

[motorbiking]

Check their FSCS status. They have some regulation, but I don't see a mention of deposit protection.

It seems to be set up for moving money rather than storing it.

When I was using them they were a Lithuanian based Electronic Money Institution, not a bank.

There is no deposit protection.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Check their FSCS status. They have some regulation, but I don't see a mention of deposit protection.

It seems to be set up for moving money rather than storing it.

Thanks yes, I've just spotted that, and - they only pay the interest, on an attached investment account, is the way I have since read it. That last, wasn't obvious before opening the account.

Reading a bit deeper, it seems any money put in the 'jar', for investment, is protected by the FSCS, but not the amount, not in the jar. Am I reading it right?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Big money i'd be keeping away from accounts that can get drained by the click of a mouse

That is true of most accounts, but it usually takes several clicks, and warnings, to send to a different account which has not previously been used.

Marcus, only allow you to withdraw into one, single specified account.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Thanks yes, I've just spotted that, and - they only pay the interest, on an attached investment account, is the way I have since read it. That last, wasn't obvious before opening the account.

Reading a bit deeper, it seems any money put in the 'jar', for investment, is protected by the FSCS, but not the amount, not in the jar. Am I reading it right?

If it's anything less than 100% clear then stay the heck away!

It all looks very odd to me.

Never rely on the info any bank gives about regulation, check with the government on their website.

Search here to find out...

Bank & Savings Protection Checker

FSCS protects UK bank accounts up to £120,000 Use our protection checker to see if your money is protected or if any of your savings could be at risk.

www.fscs.org.uk

But, as it seems they're not even a "bank", they probably won't be listed at all. In which case stay away.

 

[motorbiking]

They aren't a bank, they actually deposit the money in proper banks. I don't think I'd use them for anything other than parking foreign currency.