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Getting paid to makework for banks etc.

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 henwardian 09 Nov 2020

There are a lot of offers out there saying things like "open an account" / "transfer money" / etc. and we'll pay you £££s.

If you decide to just take all these people at their word and start spending a little time setting up a web of accounts and investments with the minimums required and closing them out and moving the money on as the required time periods lapse, is this going to trash your credit rating?

 Alpenglow 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

If it's just a random dodgy internet advert you will probable get investigated for money laundering and have all your accounts frozen and destroy your credit rating...

If it's a genuine bank offer (i.e. £125 for opening current account) then probably worth switching every year or so. Any more frequent and I find it's just a faff with constant account switches etc.

Post edited at 18:54
 jdh90 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

Wait, are you also an heir to this Nigerian fortune that I keep getting emailed about?

OP henwardian 09 Nov 2020
In reply to Alpenglow:

Hmm. Something worth considering I guess. Maybe I can find out if that happens baselessly with google.

OP henwardian 09 Nov 2020
In reply to jdh90:

No. But for a small up-front fee I can help you move it

 Michael Hood 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

My orienteering club (< 50 members) changed banks within the last year. They got the timing right to get an extra bonus and because it was a business account they got £1,300 !!! - effectively for nothing.

It's not a high value account (£000's but certainly <10k) and not that many transactions (maybe 2-300). I was stunned - unfortunately didn't apply for personal accounts.

 dread-i 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

>If you decide to just take all these people at their word and start spending a little time setting up a web of accounts and investments with the minimums required and closing them out and moving the money on as the required time periods lapse, is this going to trash your credit rating?

Assuming that these are legitimate offers from high st banks, then it wont negatively impact your credit rating. Having one bank account is good, but two is better. It means that you're trusted by two organisations. It similar with credit. If you have a credit card, and you've made regular payments on it, you're more likely to be offered more credit. So don't close the accounts, keep them open with just a quid in them.

You could set up the accounts and bounce money from your main account into them, to meet the minimum monthly requirements. I'd read the small print, as they may want a BACS type payment. They want your wage check, and hope you'll be too lazy to change account. The banks have a standard format for current accounts. When you change it over, they'll move your direct debits as well, without you having to set them up again, and do it in a week or so.

In reply to henwardian:

Don’t know about credit rating but I imagine it’d be a right faff to keep changing your current account too often, and it’s often not that easy to take up multiple different offers simultaneously. Although when they just want to see a certain amount paid in each month for the offer you can run a few accounts simultaneously by having standing orders bumping money back and forth between a few accounts.

But definitely worth changing periodically. I’ve had several hundred quid from banks over the last few years just for moving accounts. 

 ThunderCat 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

I'm a typical bank tart who does this kind of thing from time to time.  I've currently got three accounts to take advantage of the linked regular savings account (where you can dripfeed £300 a month into and get 5% interest rate, only they all dropped at the start of the year to 2.75%).

I also had a couple of other dormant accounts (which I'd previously used for switching offers), and I've just switched them to RBS and Lloyds to take advantage of the £100 switching offer.

So we've made £400 this month (Mrs TC has the same setup) just from the switching offers

Doesn't seem to be any problems with credit ratings.  I've been doing this for years and when we applied for a mortgage 4 years ago my credit score came back in extremely high.  

Need to add to this that I'm a bit obsessed with keeping an eye on my finances (after years of mismanagement in my youth), and there's never been a missed payment on anything financial for at least 20 years.  That might have something to do with it

 ThunderCat 09 Nov 2020
In reply to Stuart Williams:

> Don’t know about credit rating but I imagine it’d be a right faff to keep changing your current account too often, and it’s often not that easy to take up multiple different offers simultaneously. Although when they just want to see a certain amount paid in each month for the offer you can run a few accounts simultaneously by having standing orders bumping money back and forth between a few accounts.

it's surprisingly easy to get into the habit with a bit of organisation I find.  I set aside half an hour each payday for a little routine which involves bouncing a set amount in and out of several accounts just to meet the qualifying criteria for the switching bonus / regular savings interest rate etc.

Nerd Alert, I know.

OP henwardian 09 Nov 2020
In reply to dread-i:

> When you change it over, they'll move your direct debits as well, without you having to set them up again, and do it in a week or so.

I want to avoid this particular type though because I'm quite happy with my main current account, so I wouldn't want to start moving my main "base of operations" as it were around. Just opening spurious accounts.

OP henwardian 09 Nov 2020
In reply to ThunderCat:

Hmm. Very encouraging to hear, thanks. I didn't consider that you could run two or three different current accounts that were all considered your "main" one and then switch all of them if you can drum up enough different standing orders or direct debits.

 Philb1950 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

D

In reply to ThunderCat:

Ah those ones I don’t mind the faff of. I do something similar with a series of standing orders bouncing money in and out of various accounts.

It’s the ones that want pay in, plus a certain number of direct debits, plus closure of your previous account that I find too much bother to run simultaneously. I guess it could be done if I spread my direct debits over multiple accounts

 Mick r 09 Nov 2020
In reply to Stuart Williams:

I think the cashback offers are for new accounts, so you will need to close some of them as there are only so many banks out there 

 Bobling 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

Last time my wife and I did it a couple of months back it took us about ten minutes admin total I think.  Few weeks later got £250 between us.  So easy to do and so worth it.

Shame is I had to leave First Direct who I actually really, really liked banking with as their customer service was absolutely amazing.  Still, hopefully the merry go round will deposit (hehe) me back with them soon.

Completely didn't answer your question about whether you can just switch limitlessly with a web of multiple accounts harvesting the freebies, Thundercat seems to have this covered though.

 ThunderCat 09 Nov 2020
In reply to Stuart Williams:

yeah, got the dd's spread over four accounts.  The requirement is usually to have a minimum of two.

they're fixed amounts, so part of the payday routine is to bump a set amount of money into each one to cover everything that is due to come out. 

A minor faff, but I've got it nailed now as part of the routint so pretty much habit now

 elliot.baker 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

I've done this quite a bit too, as many others have said. A year or two ago when we got an Amex card (platinum every day (it's free)) we got about £900 in one year from the Amex intro offer, then Nationwide from referring myself and my wife and a friend. Sitting on a few accounts now. Credit rating's not suffered, but as others have said I do monitor it each month to make sure money's in the right accounts to pay stuff off. It's a bit of hassle. Might move them all again now I've read this to make it worth while. 

 ThunderCat 09 Nov 2020
In reply to henwardian:

I don't think the account providers mind to be honest.  As long as you meet the criteria of paying in a set amount each month.  It doesn't have to stay there - mine tends to go in and out within a few minutes

the only minor faff I have is that it can't be from the same bank, so where me and the missus both have a lloyds account (for example), I'd have to:

-Get paid into my main account (First Direct)

Pay a lump into my Lloyds account

-Pay it back from my Lloyds to my First direct account

-Pay it agan from my First Direct account into the missus's Lloyds account

-Pay it back from her lloyds account into my first direct account.

-(they don't like it when you pay directly from a Lloyds account into another lloyds account)

Appreciate it sounds like a faff, but it's half an hour a month, and having the apps makes it surprisingly painless.

In reply to henwardian:

I read there is some mileage in maintaining at least one long running account as one of the credit scores is based on account longevity.  I can't confirm if true but easy enough to leave one ticking along and use others for switching etc.

In reply to henwardian:

I did this as student when you used to be able to get a massive interest free overdraft - walked the local high st and opened an account with every bank (think I had 7) - collected all the free stuff then stuck all the proceeds on the stock market* - had £10 which worked its way around them over the course of the month. Didn't seem to affect my credit rating though this was 20 years ago.

* this didn't work out so well, made a small profit but wasn't worth the hassle in the end.


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