Watch out for this banking rip-off

by Harvey Jones on 15 January 2010  |  6 comments
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Harvey Jones explores an extremely sneaky tactic banks use in January to rip you off.

It's every banker's dream: to persuade their customers to use them as a one-stop shop for all their financial services.

Plenty of people do this already, either out of laziness, misguided loyalty, or because they believe their bank really does offer the best possible deal. Now bankers are making a concerted push to convince the remainder, according to new research from Defaqto, offering discounts and special deals to 'existing customers only' via their 'January sales'.

The one-stop flop

I've never been in favour of the one-stop shop in financial services, because no single company can offer a market-beating deal across every product. Your bank certainly can't, and it doesn't want to either.

Here's a sample of the kinds of discounts on offer to existing customers, to lure you into thinking you've got a good deeal:

Money off mortgages

• Halifax is offering its current account customers discounts on its mortgage range, shaving between 0.2% and 0.4% off its interest rates.
• Abbey and Alliance & Leicester already offer current account customers free valuations and a cashback on certain mortgages, while HSBC Plus and HSBC Premier current account customers get a 0.15% discount off selected mortgages.
• Building society Nationwide is offering 90% mortgages to its FlexAccount current account customers, while NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland also offer mortgage discounts.

Cheaper rates for borrowers

• Halifax customers get a 12-month 0% interest-free period on purchases when they take out its All-in-one credit card, up from the standard nine months.
• Nationwide current account customers get unsecured loans for between £7,500 and £14,000 for up to five years at a discounted 7.6% APR.

Savings on savings

• Halifax customers get an extra to 0.2% on its variable rate savings products.
• First Direct, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Norwich & Peterborough building society all offer regular monthly savings accounts exclusively to their current account holders.

These promotions are on top of the vigorous cross-selling of mortgages, savings, credit cards, personal loans, Isas and pensions that the big banks have been routinely doing for years.

Be warned. Nine times out of ten, just because your bank is offering you a slightly better mortgage or savings rate, doesn't mean that it's a great deal. And the more you shop at your bank, the worse you are likely to fare.

Shopping around

In fairness, some of these special offers do bring the banks to within a whisker of the market leaders. Due to the loyalty discounts:

• Halifax customers can get a two-year fixed rate mortgage reduced from 3.99% to a competitive 3.69%, but only up to a low 60% loan-to-value. That is just 0.2% behind current market leader Cumberland building society, which offers a two-year fix at 3.49%, again up to 60% LTV. Both mortgages have a £995 arrangement fee.
• HSBC Plus and HSBC Premier current account customers can get a competitive two-year fixed rate mortgage for 3.84% (discounted from 3.99%) up to 75% LTV with a £599 booking fee. Again, this isn't so far behind the market leaders.
• The Nationwide discounted 7.6% APR loan is the market-leader - it's just a shame it's only available to existing customers only.

So yes, the big banks do offer good products from time to time, and you should always include them in your product search. But you really don't want to use them as a one-stop shop.

Do your research

Take the case of a customer who chose to take out a mortgage, savings account, cash Isa and credit card all with the same high street bank... let's say Lloyds TSB. How would they fare compared with shopping around for the best buys?

Stop before you shop

Lloyds TSB's deals aren't all bad, its Platinum MasterCard, for example, is pretty good. But in this example, shopping around for a better mortgage, savings account and cash Isa saves you an extra £999 a year, or nearly £2,000 over two years.

So, you can see why you wouldn't want to use Lloyds TSB (or any bank) as a one-stop shop, when you can browse through the entire online financial services retail park and save yourself hundreds or thousands of pounds a year.

The moral of the story is: however dazzling those discounts look, always shop around and compare products before you make a final decision. Don't listen to your bank. It has its own best interests at heart - not yours!

Compare mortgages, savings accounts and cash Isa at lovemoney.com