Is Your Current Account Up To Scratch?
It's often said that here in Britain we change our marriage partners more often than we changes our bank accounts, and while this might not strictly be true there's a definite inertia that most of us feel when it comes to our banking arrangements.
Maybe it's just because the whole topic isn't really very exciting, maybe it's because many of us are somewhat intimidated by anything which comes accompanied by so much financial jargon and legalese - whatever the reasons, many of us simply stick to the same bank account year in and year out, no matter whether we could get a better deal elsewhere.
The situation is particularly bad when it comes to our current account arrangements. At least with savings accounts, the availability of the easy-to-compare AER figure means that it's clear whether or not our existing arrangements are up to scratch. With current accounts, though, more of us seem to be happy to stick to the devil we know - and we could be missing out hugely as a result.
Interest / AER
The first area to take a look at is that of interest earnings. Traditionally, current accounts offered either no interest at all, or more usually a token amount of 0.1% or similar. Times have changed, and now most banks will offer an in-credit rate that is much close to that more usually seen on savings accounts. Although most accounts limit the total amount of interest you can earn, if you're not earning a decent rate of interest on your balance then you could be missing out on a worthwhile chunk of cash over the course of a year.
Charges
Next, we tend to take free personal banking for granted in this country, but that's not to say that you shouldn't pay attention to your bank's small print and make sure you're not being hit with any hidden charges. You should be able to get a fee-free overdraft of up to a few hundred pounds without much difficulty, and if you stay within this limit you shouldn't really be expected to pay anything at all to use your account. Should you go overdrawn without authorisation, however, or start doing things like bouncing cheques, then that's a whole different story. You can expect to be charged heavily I this situation, but the level of charges must be made clear in advance and so when opening a new account it makes sense to find one with the smallest charges.
Packaged Benefits
Finally, many modern current accounts offer selected benefits for customers in exchange for a monthly or yearly fee. Some of these benefits can be quite valuable, offering significant savings for example on air fares or hotel bookings, but others offer deals which are unremarkable and easy to find elsewhere - make sure you're not paying for any of these packaged benefits unless you're sure you're going to be making profitable use of them.
So there we have it. Our day to day banking needs aren't ever going to set our pulses racing with excitement, and the savings accounts comparison top-spots will always be more hotly challenged, but if your current account isn't up to scratch then you could be leaving money on the table.
