Bank charging to open account

[Spongey27]

I've tried to sign up to a different bank as mine is horrible (lloyds). I signed up to Halifax but they want £100 to open the account! Can they do that? I don't have that much money at one time.

[buzby]

You mean as an initial deposit, or as a fee for opening the account? Certainly there's nothing to stop them doing this in the first instance as clearly they need some of your money to manage. If the latter, that's one heck of a fee, and I'd look elsewhere. I think the Nationwide still only want £1 as an initial deposit (but would accept more if you pressed them!).

[callumsgran]

Personally i would go to natwest, they have a decent debit card and online banking:cool:

[Spongey27]

You mean as an initial deposit, or as a fee for opening the account? Certainly there's nothing to stop them doing this in the first instance as clearly they need some of your money to manage. If the latter, that's one heck of a fee, and I'd look elsewhere. I think the Nationwide still only want £1 as an initial deposit (but would accept more if you pressed them!).

 

The money is to open the account. They said it only has to stay in the bank overnight. I'm pretty sure my lloyds account only needed a pound. I think a hundred is ridiculous though.

[LondonPam]

This sounds like you've applied for their new high interest account. If it is, then it's part of the operating conditions of this account. You should check their terms and conditions on the account as that's where I just found it.

[Zola]

Hi, I think this is pretty standard for Halifax, my partner opened an account with them for a parachute account and he had to deposit 100 pound on opening, he put it in on a Saturday morning and took it all back out on the Monday to put back in his Nationwide account.