Thoughts on “Premium” Bank Accounts

What are your thoughts on having a premium bank account, such as Monzo Premium, Nationwide FlexPlus or Club Lloyds for example.

Would you ever pay for a bank account? If so, why?

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Monzo Premium: Meh.
FlexPlus: great offer if it provides what you need.
Club Lloyds: Not for me but I understand why it has its fans.

I would yes. There are two paradigms I’d be happy to pay for:

  1. A premium experience that offered real value that was constantly evolving, improving, and becoming better value.
  2. Current accounts are loss leaders. Banks do some pretty amoral (at best) and immoral (at worst) crap to break even and profit on them. I’d much rather, given the chance, pay for a regular bank account to avoid all that crap and ensure I’m not the real product in the arrangement.
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My main account is now HSBC Premier, which has no fee but pretty high requirements. You get free travel insurance and fast telephone support included.

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I pay for Flex Plus, Santander 123 Mini and NatWest Rewards.

Pay for what gives you value.

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Because I deem it worthwhile/value.

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Paying for e.g. Nationwide’s Flex Plus, or Barclay’s travel/breakdown insurance is good value when you compare them to standalone policies from other insurance companies. Some of them are really worth it as they save you money if you. e.g. travel a lot or have a car.

Anne Boden has stated many times that’s, in her word, “folklore”. Maybe for legacy banks with branches and falling–apart IT systems and 100s of products, but there’s no reason a current current account, free at the point of supply, isn’t profitable, as the neo banks are proving.

As for paid–for, we have a very weird, unique market here in the UK (thanks, I believe, to Midland Bank in the 80s) where free is the not only expected, but the norm. I’d pay if the product was good value or aligned with my values (like Triodos). I’m not talking about Barclays’ ‘pay £5 and get £5 back for paying direct debits’ bollocks, that’s just Barclays playing a long game getting people used to paying for their current accounts, and no value whatsoever.

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If it was financially worth it for me.

I personally wouldn’t call Club Lloyds a premium account but I have one - and the monthly fee is refunded each month - so its essentially free.

I have HSBC Premier and as @mikez mentioned, this is also a free account.

I do pay for a Santander 123 Lite account for cashback on direct debits.

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Interesting. Without relying on things like fees and overdrafts charges? Or turning the customer into the product? I’m dubious, so I’ll believe it when their current accounts are profitable on their own. Right now, as I understand it, they’re only profitable due to loans and such.

I just don’t see how they could make sufficient money just from operating a basic current account to the point it becomes profitable. Or maybe I’ve just fallen for the fintech spiel, as it’s the usual justification for introducing the premium accounts.

Do you have a link to where she said that, out of interest? I’d be interested in reading it to see if she expounds where the money is.

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I’m not a fan of premium accounts. It has never been worth my while with what they offer in return for a “premium service/rewards”. EG Monzo plus would only benefit me for the open banking and credit score feature… however is it worth the cost when open banking is free with other banks and I can get my credit score from clear score which reports from all 3 ref agencies rather than what Monzo offer from only trans union. To me it’s just throwing money away. Same with the monzo metal card… no benefits to me and who uses cards this day when everything can be tapped via phone or watch - no more pulling cards out of tight Jean pockets and finding the card in the wallet lol

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Oh good, we haven’t had one of these threads in a while.

To answer though, it’s as it always is - totally subjective to that individual. So you’ll either get a yes or no answer. Not too sure how helpful that is, maybe it helps others come off the fence, who knows.

For me, probably not these days. You can almost always get the offerings for cheaper elsewhere, I’d rather “pay” in terms of minimum funding requirements and get something for free as a result - e.g. HSBC premier comes with free worldwide travel insurance.

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I have to say - one thing I like about Triodos is you very rarely get cross flogging of products - which I feel they justify via the fee. The low cost, handle deposits and transactions, model works for them I suppose - although they’re overdrafts are the least accessible I know of.

My other providers, Revolut, Coop & recently RBS again all push insurance, fee bearing or lending products fairly regularly. Useful when you need them, annoying when you don’t.

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There’s little value for me personally in packaged accounts and always had one which will include my phone insurance.

I could likely cover this cheaper. But then I always anticipate going on holiday more than I actually do so the travel insurance helps.

Overall it’s more benefit to the receiver of my monthly fee than it is myself as I’ve never had to claim on phone insurance nor travel insurance.

Better to have and not need. Then need and not have.

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Is Monzo Plus worth it? I don’t want to see myself ever pay for a Current Account but Virtual Pots are so enticing for budgeting

Look at what you get for £5. Decide if that’s worth it to you.

If you still can’t decide, read the other 50 threads asking the same thing.

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It doesn’t.

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ClearScore only reports data from Equifax

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I used to have a packaged Lloyds account but I kinda got talked into it as I used to be (and still am) bad at not getting sucked in to sales spiel. The only one I’d probably get these days is Nationwide FlexPlus.

I looked at like the NatWest/RBS rewards credit cards, but I don’t actually buy a huge amount, so with 1% cashback at supermarkets and even if I moved every penny I spent to go through that card, after the £24 a year fee I’d be up less than a tenner. I’d rather have the flexibility of spreading things thinly like I do now than lumping it on one card for a tine sum at the end of the year.

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I’d disagree here.

Something like Monzo Plus really is subjective in terms of how much you value a “premium” card or access to an API.

But Flex Plus and Santander 123 are literal calculations. Is the cash back more than the fee? Are the value of the benefits cheaper than what you’d pay separately (provided you need them).

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No I wouldn’t pay as the bolt ons can normally be achieved cheaper elsewhere and more comprehensively.

In addition, money in current accounts receive no interest but these money balances can be lent out at up to 40% interest. Nice margin and therefore a CA is not a net loss leader.

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