www.iva.co.uk

Please help,just gone to try and change bank account and having probs, cant touch barclays or santander as they are 2 of my creditors,Ulster bank and first trust both want utility bills we pay electric by meter and dont have landline phone,have heard co op is good but dont have a local branch to get wages paid into,what am i going to do?

Hi,

You don't need a local branch to have your wages paid into. You can use the post office to pay money into and the Co-op do come recommended. You can open a basic account over the phone.

Yorshire Bank also come recommended, and you could try NatWest for a basic account as well.

i had a great response from RBS back in 2007, not sure what there like with new customers now there goverment owned, they openend me a new account very quickly and arranged all my payments, DD's to be transferred over etc and got the account openend in time for me to get paid without any problems etc.

I found Natwest deeply unhelpful, to the point where the guy who i went to see literally threw my documents back at me and said 'he couldnt help me with an account'!!

However, ive heard V good things about the Co-op!

Hope this helps
Arty
)X(

Lesley has a NatWest account and I know she likes it.

You could try LloydsTSB or Halifax. HSBC and First Direct won't touch you at all.

If all else fails, there are paid for accounts which are guaranteed to accept you but they generally charge between £10 and £12 a month.

I have a natwest step acccount. Brilliant for me, even got a VISA debit card now. Make sure you don't owe anything to Natwest or Royal Bank Scotland though as they work together!

im with Coop, applied over phone and no problems at all lovely to deal with, uk call centres and always prompt to pickup the phone.

online banking is a little basic compared to halifax but does the job fine!

We have had our Nat West Step account up and running for several months now, and are very happy with it.

The online banking facility is very good as transactions are shown instantly,which makes keeping track of your finances fairly easy.

You also get a free card reader which adds an extra level of security when making payments online.

Overall very impressed with the account and grateful for the advice given on this forum once again.

I totally agree with all the positive comments about the Natwest, October 07 I joined them and think I will continue to be with them as more than happy. x

I'm guessing you are northern ireland. We had the same problem - we went to bank of ireland, this was on the suggestion of cab! They are great - no probs so far, ulster bank was our last bank account.

I opened a Yorkshire Bank Readycash account which comes with a Maestro card and very good internet banking with good access to direct debit details. I did open this account a couple of months ago now and my wage has been paid into this account for at least 6 weeks, I am only at the drafing a proposal stage of my IVA though, so I don`t know how I would have been received by the bank had I actually been in an IVA...I`m hoping that if my IVA proposal is accepted, then by that time my account will be relatively well established, so I`m hoping the bank will just let my account run.

Yorkshire Bank are known to be IVA sympathetic so you should be fine.

We are with Halifax and have their cashminder account. When we first applied we were given just a cash card. 12 months later we were upgraded to a Visa Electron card. I know a few people dont like Electrons but in the last 3 and half years we have come across 2 places that won't accept them and they were holiday campsites so not bad going. xx

Nationwide will be rolling out their new Visa card for the basic accounts soon. Be much better.

We opened an account with the Co-op, No cheque book, no overdraft just Visa debit card. Internet banking as previously stated is basic compared with Natwest but I don't owe Co-op bank any money! Went into the local branch and was open and honest about our debts and that we were looking at the possibility of an IVA, hence why we wanted to open another bank account, they arranged a meeting with one of their lending people who went through everything with us and at the end of the meeting agreed that an IVA was probably the best way forward. Really nice staff, nothing too much trouble and very understanding. Would recommend to anyone on the forum.