I had an Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current Account and earned 6% on my balance for 12 months; then when the year was up and the interest rate plunged, I opened a new Account at my local Abbey branch, for a current account offering 6% on balances up to £2500 for a year. I did not 'switch' through them but arranged my salary to go into the new Abbey account and my direct debits to come out of it. I thought I would receive 6% but apparently as I have only transferred from one Santander-owned bank to another, the 12-month rule applies and I will not get 6% on my Abbey current account balance. I suppose it is right, but if I had known this, I would not have gone to the bother of opening an Abbey account and doing all the changes myself. To get better than 1% on my current account balance, where should I go to?

davidmc:To get better than 1% on my current account balance, where should I go to?

Frankly, you would have to go to cloud cuckoo land (or another country). The only UK current accounts which pay interest worth mentioning will have terms, clauses and monthly charges that give with one hand and take with the other. Abbey, for example, are lending money for mortgages at four or five percent. Surely you can't expect them to give you a plastic card, use of cash machines, a cheque book, direct debits, instant access and so on and then pay you 6% on the balance?

davidmc:

apparently as I have only transferred from one Santander-owned bank to another, the 12-month rule applies and I will not get 6% on my Abbey current account balance. I suppose it is right,

I have no idea whether you are right to suppose or not but a brief look at the offer page and account terms & conditions doesn't immediately support the Abbey claim. How do you suppose they are right?

To answer your question differently, is it wise to have up to £2500 in a current account just to receive 6%? No, because such easily accessible money is more vulnerable to fraud. Far better to have the "free" overdraft account because fraud on debit balances is limited to £50.

Alternatively look at the HBOS rewards current account offer.

The point is - they advertise 6% (gross AER) on credit balances for their current account, for 12 months, on balances up to £2500. I don't think anyone is offering much more than 3% on instant access savings, so 6% is very good. If it is not available to ex-Alliance and Leicester customers, who presumably do the same for people coming to them from Abbey (?), I can understand it, but they should make that clear in their 'small print', and I did not see it anywhere.