Transcription
So, I've not really bothered talking about premier bank accounts on the channel before because frankly, there are some very, very high eligibility criteria for many people. But over the last few months, we have seen a number of those big high street banks which have these premier accounts offering some really pretty decent bank switching deals. As much as £500 has been available now, these deals do come and go, and I cover those in my monthly banking updates, plus over at be cleverwithyoucash.com/banks. The team there are updating the list of all the best banks switching deals.
But I thought it's worth talking about these accounts now because it might be worth considering getting one of these if you are eligible. Now there are five banks that offer these: Santander, Lloyds, Nat West, Barclays, and HSBC. And no one else does this kind of thing right now. There are packaged accounts from lots of different banks, but they're different. Packaged accounts effectively give you things like um travel insurance and uh breakdown cover, mobile phone insurance. Uh maybe a few little extras, some rewards and some perks come with those as well in return for a monthly fee. And if you can get a current account with the banks that offer those, you can get them.
Premier is different. Premier will have often a very high earnings threshold or savings threshold for before they even consider giving you the account. Obviously, you still need to apply. There will be other checks that come into play, but if you don't meet those criteria, you can't get them. In return, you might be able to get rewards. You might be able to get access to exclusive rates on savings or mortgages. You might be able to get some uh digital GP cover. You might be able to get health insurance. Uh and some of these are free. Some of them charge you, some of them are free. So, it could well be we'll take you through all of them that if you like the idea of what you can get, if you think there's value in the ones where there's a fee, then it might be worth going for them.
So, let's start off with the ones which are easier to get in that they have the lower level of earning threshold annual salary in order to get them. Okay. So, first of all, let's have a look at Santander. They have Select. Now, you don't actually have a Select current account. you would apply for one of their other current accounts that they offer. And that could be the Edge, which we talked about lots before, or whatever it might be. But you have to, in order to qualify for the Select services, you need to earn uh £5,000 a month. That's £60,000 a year or have £75,000 saved or invested with the bank. Now, I don't think, and they all have similar things, I'll take you through them. I don't think it's worth uh saving or investing these huge amounts with these five banks because on the whole you are going to get better rates elsewhere for savings or you're going to get lower fees elsewhere on investments. The one that might be slightly different to this is Santander because it does uh more than the others offer uh a competitive savings rate. Now again don't get me wrong while those other banks later on could come through with a decent savings rate but on the whole I would be looking at the earnings income rather than the savings although say with Santander they do often have some high paying easy access or fixed term ISAs uh which might mean you qualify via that route but if most of the time what we're really talking about is that earnings threshold.
So, at 5K a month, this is pretty much the cheapest one you're going to get. But what you get is really nothing special at all from my opinion. Um, you get uh access to a 0.5% paying uh World Elite credit card from Santander, but you're paying £15 a month for that. It's £180 a year. Well, you can get higher cashback rates as I've covered here on the channel um from different places um for for for no charge at all. Now, you do get with that credit card access to some airport lounges. So, if that's of interest to you and you're willing to pay £15 a month for that, then maybe you do want to have a look at this uh and it's worth going for it. But again, you need to qualify for the Select package before you can apply for that one and have a Santander current account. You also get uh fee-free spending abroad, but again many cards will let you do that elsewhere. You don't need this one for that. The only other thing here which might be of interest to you, a little bit different uh concerns uh the ability to open up a Santander euro account and a Santander dollar account. Now there are other places that do that without having to do premium banking. You can look at TransferWise for example. Um, there may be fees that come into that. So, if you are someone who does receive a lot of money in euros and dollars or spends a lot in those and you're not going to take advantage of uh the other kind of ways to sort of get these with low exchange rates, you might be interested from that point of view. But again, I don't really think the Santander Select has anything special going for it.
Okay, next up is the Lloyds Premier account. This one has the same threshold in terms of the money you pay into the account every month: £5,000. Uh it doesn't have to be in one go, just with the Club Lloyds account. It can be smaller amounts multiple times. You put a grand in, take it out, put it back in, do a total of five times. If 5k has been there in the account in the month, then you will qualify for this and you will avoid a £15 monthly fee. So, it's really important you do this because otherwise you'll be paying 180 quid for this account. You can also have £100,000 saved or invested with Lloyds, but again, I don't think it's worth it.
So, what do you get with the Lloyds Premier? Uh, well, it talks about saying it's worth £876. Okay. But a lot of those bits you can get elsewhere with other accounts which don't uh have such a a much larger threshold. So for example, things like the uh lifestyle freebie, cinema tickets, Disney Plus, you get that with Club Lloyds anyway. Um, fee-free spending, you can get that elsewhere in different banks. Again, don't think it's a reason why you really put a value on that one with this one. Uh, the extras that it has uh which you don't get with the other accounts from Lloyds: 1% cashback um capped at £10 a month which again it's pretty decent but you can get that elsewhere if not higher than that elsewhere so I wouldn't be considering that as a reason to get it. Um, you can also get uh the big thing here for them really, the big difference is what we're shown on the screen right now: this Berr digital family GP and well-being subscription. So it's worth £50 a month, so that's a big chunk, so £600 a year big chunk what they're saying that total value is worth and that really is the thing that you'll be getting with this. Now remember, as long as you pay in five grand a month, there is no charge for this, so it will be a completely free option. Uh, what it means, what it is, well, it's basically virtual GP, virtual physiotherapy, virtual mental health support. That's it, right? So it's not like going to your normal NHS GP where you might get a prescription, all those things, they're not available. It's literally if you got want to talk to someone about something. So it might be handy if you can't get an appointment, you just want to talk about something, but if you do need any follow-up care, you're still going to want to talk to your uh personal GP. But really, this is what you're getting with the account. 1% cashback might be useful, but ultimately this is what you're getting from the Lloyds Premier account. So, possibly not really worth it. Although, again, you can game it as you can with the Club Lloyds. You don't need to actually be a high earner for this one. You could get hold of it via a different way.
Now, I'm saying it's not really worth it, these two so far, the Santander and the Lloyds. Obviously, if there is a high paying bank switching deal going for it and you're eligible for that because you haven't had the switching deal from them in the past, then absolutely it may be worth uh looking at these ones even if you're not then going to continue with the account because you can also always downgrade it to a different account with those banks afterwards once you've qualified and got that switch in cash.
Okay, let's move on now to Barclays and their premier current account is one of those which has been offering a very, very high bank switching deal uh recently. Uh, what do you get with them? Again, a lot of those usual things that you're getting with many of these different uh services. So, you're getting 24/7 premium phone support. Uh, they're promising lower mortgage rates, which might be useful, although I would say with that, you're obviously going to want to still compare them to rates elsewhere. So, again, not a reason to be getting the Barclays account, but it could be a nice little perk. Um, you can get £500 interest-free overdraft, but again, if you're a high earner, is that really something that you need? Um, you can get uh much 2,000 pounds out of an ATM every day, which is more than the normal 300 pounds you're getting with most banks, but do you need to take two grand of cash out every day? If you do, this is a great one to look at. Um, and again, higher payment limits and transfers is in theory easier to move money around, but if you're doing that on a regular basis, there might be other accounts that are better for you. Uh, really, the kind of uh that's it, I would say that you're going to get with this account. There's nothing too much particularly special with it.
Now, it is free though. There's no charge for you doing this. Uh, there is a threshold of £75,000 annual salary that needs to be paid into the account or £100,000 saved or invested with Barclays. So, it's we're stepping up a little bit here. It is going to be higher earners uh only able to get hold of this one. You can't game that at all. Now, you might think, is that it? Is that all that's offering there? Because if you go on their website, it talks about all free Apple TV, Barclays' Avios rewards, Barclays' cashback rewards, enhanced savings rates, which all sound fantastic, right? But you don't need this account to get those. You can get the free Apple TV with Barclays Blue Rewards. Yes, you're paying for that every single month. So, it's not free, but you can get it there. The um Barclays Avios rewards is £12 a month. I mean, that's what it costs anyway for any Barclays customer. You can get Avios rewards to get those. The cashback rewards, again, you can get them with any account. The enhanced savings rates, the rainy day saver, again, you can get that with the Blue Rewards. So yes, you are avoiding that £5 fee for the Apple TV and the Blue Rainy Day Saver, but it otherwise is not really anything particularly special coming with that. Of course, if you do qualify for it and you are a Barclays customer anyway, then maybe it's worth getting this upgrade just to avoid those things. You will get a few little extras with it. But again, nothing particularly special in my opinion on this one. If you want those extras, uh probably look elsewhere.
Okay, next up is NatWest or RBS. It's the same bank effectively. You can get these same accounts with both the banks. I've got NatWest here on the screen, but RBS will be the same. Your choice really. Now, this is again another one with has a bank and switch recently, lower than the others at £250. Again, these deals do come and go, so keep an eye on those monthly updates to find exactly what those best uh premier bank switching deals are. So, again, you might want to consider it for that. Uh, the eligibility for this one is on the higher end again: £100,000 for a sole income or if you're getting a joint account is £120K. Um, then £100K as it is for most of these for savings or investments. Or this does have an additional option here if you have a mortgage with NatWest which is at least £500K, then you can also get the premier banking with NatWest. So again, if you already have that mortgage with them, then maybe it's worth having a look at some of these upgrades because there isn't just one, there are three different options: there's a Premier Select, the Premier Reward, and the Premier Black. Now, Premier Select doesn't really do anything fancy at all. You're getting there is fee-free spending abroad, which again, you can get in so many other banks which I've covered previously. Um, and you get 24/7 support and you get a £500 interest-free overdraft, long as you're eligible for all these overdrafts, you still have to apply for that aspect for them to give it to you. So maybe, maybe is it really worth it? Probably not.
Where it gets more interesting is the next level, which is Premier Reward. Now, this one will cost you two pounds a month. Okay, but that's no different to the normal NatWest Reward account. That's always also two pounds a month. Um, but where it is different to that, the big difference at least is uh you will get uh £10 in rewards rather than £5 in rewards every month. So £9 of those rewards come from having two direct debits on the account and £1 comes from logging into the mobile app every single month. So after that two pound fee, you're looking at eight pounds a month. You're looking at £96 a year profit from this year after year, year after year. So, if you are eligible for it and you're an AtWest customer anyway, if you already have the Reward account with them and you're eligible for the Premier Reward, it absolutely makes sense to make that step up and get that money, long as you're paying two direct debits out. And again, covered plenty of times before. There's a whole video looking at cheap and easy direct debits you can set up if you're short of the standard ones that most people have for bills. Little extra ones you can set up in order to qualify for this. Um, that's the main difference there I would say on Premier Reward.
Then we go up to Premier Reward Black. Now, this one will cost you a lot more: £36 a month. And what you get, the main thing you get from this is travel insurance. So that travel insurance is worldwide for your family. You also get breakdown cover and you also get phone insurance. Now £36 for that is way over the odds because you can get it at other banks for 17, 18, 19 quid. So let's just take that out of the equation. And say you do need those things and you're already willing to pay 17, 18 pounds for that. Take that off the fee. It leaves another 18 quidish for the other features. Effectively, what you're paying uh as long as you are going to use those insurances. What else do you get there? Well, you get airport lounge access. Okay? And if you travel a lot, you might see some value in that. But remember, if you've got it elsewhere, maybe the Amex Platinum credit card, is it worth it for that? But it's something to think about. Um, you also get something called Concierge Access. I mean, this is a, you know, I don't know. It's really difficult to put a value on this. Apparently, you can get uh access to events, you get discounts or upgrades on hotels and stays. Really difficult to know if there is any real value in that and if you're even going to use it. Um, you also get 25% cashback on tickets to uh concerts, the gigs, theatre, some sporting events as well, which you book via uh their services, which sounds amazing and it could actually be worth a fair amount, but you're limited to six tickets per event and only four events a year. So, you obviously want to be saving those for the bigger, more expensive gigs, not just something uh happening at a little venue near you. Um, and also talks here about uh discounts on cinema tickets, but again, you can get that elsewhere, so I wouldn't put that in there at all. So really you got to think about will you use the airport lounge passes uh and will you use that 25% off uh tickets uh four times a year that has to sort of add up to a value of at least £120 for you and obviously already wanting the uh the extras. Um, you will obviously get the money back as well uh from uh the the rewards every month as well which factored in. So I don't think the NatWest one is that bad at all actually. If you qualify for it, certainly have a look at the Reward one, the Black one. Think about whether it's going to be worth it for you.
There's one more to talk about here, and that is HSBC. Now, this one from HSBC has a qualifying of 100K salary or 100K in uh savings or investment. So again, if you earn over 100K uh then maybe HSBC is one to look at because you get a lot with this one and there is no additional charge. So certainly I think any high earners certainly should really really have a look at this and again they one of the ones which have had some of the higher bank switching deals for their premier account recently. So it could not only make you some cash up front, it could uh get you some nice extras as well.
So what do you get with this one? So the big thing here uh I would say is around travel insurance uh because it's completely free. There is no extra charge for that travel insurance worldwide for your family, not just your kids, but your grandkids as well. If you are obviously if you have those um obviously with all these packaged and premier travel insurance where it's included, do check the policies because it might find there's something that you do want to do that isn't covered. So do confirm all that. Don't just rely on it. But again, good to have that for no charge at all if you qualify for that. You're also going to get um some health cover as well. The same as we saw uh with Lloyds before that you get that digital GP, mental health, physio appointment, all virtual, but again, you're not paying for it at all here. So if you got the account, worth having a look at that. There is also a policy that if 12 months after you first open the account you get diagnosed uh with cancer and then you were to die from that, there's a £2,000 benefit paid to your family as well. Okay, hopefully that won't happen to you, but if you got the account, then that's an extra two grand. Although don't forget if you are concerned about what happens if you were to die for whatever reason, look at things like life insurance policies and pay for those because the payout will be much more substantial. Um, so that's this is a little extra. Is it something to uh get the account for? I I would say not. Um, you also get the option to open 20 worldwide accounts. Again, really niche. If you do want to have accounts in different currencies for whatever reason, HSBC has 20 whereas when we looked at Santander there were just three. You know. So this is many, many more currencies you might be able to open up with which could be uh useful to you. Um, 24/7 support as they do all do uh preferential rates as many of them do. You also get access here to a credit card, the Premier Reward, Premier World Elite credit card from HSBC, which will give you uh points every time you spend. Works out the equivalent of 1.5 airline points, whether that's Avios or Virgin or whoever you transfer them to, for every pound, but you can transfer them into uh gift vouchers or other ways of spending them. Um, you get lounge access with that fast track at the airport, which all sounds great, but it's £290 a year. I think if you're going to spend £290 a year, give or take, on a credit card, I'd be looking at the uh Amex UK British Airways cards or the Barclays card Avios cards because you spend a lot on them. You also get the ability to earn those extra points. So, don't think the credit card really is something to look at.
There might be little extras in there that might be worth it for you with this and with any other account, but hopefully that this has given you the the headlines of what you get from those premier accounts. So, what I would do is if you qualify for any of them, have a more detailed look in particular at what they're offering, the ones you qualify for. If you're looking at this because of the bank switching deals, uh then go for the bank switching deal and then maybe stay for the account if you feel you're getting benefit from them. But just be really careful here not to be spending money. I know not all of them do have extra charges, but if they do have extra charges, then you're not spending money for something you don't need. Try and see this as if you're a high earner, a nice little perk that you can get to access extra uh things like that health insurance or maybe some rewards or some cashback on top of what you'd get if you already banked with these on their lower level accounts. We have more information about these and other premier bank accounts over and be cleverwithyoucash.com. My name's Andy Webb. Check out these videos here for more ways to make the most of your money.