Hacker News Reader

Comment by nullandvoid | Hacker News Reader

Am I an anomaly here?

We're not money savvy people particularly, however my girlfriend and I both have 3-4 bank accounts (UK based, it takes <1 hour to setup a brand new bank, from start to finish).

We have a couple of traditional banks, and then also some more modern "internet" only banking (great for travel with their zero conversion fees, and more granular tracking of spending).

This seems to be the norm between all my friends also.

View on HN

I personally just don't see the point of having multiple banks manage my accounts. In the USA many of these banks require a minimum amount to avoid fees and since they can arbitrarily set those limits and they can change at any time I find that having multiple accounts ends up being a liability. On top of the non-existant interest why would I park $1000 in a bank account? Instead I can at least invest it in something. Heck even just adding that $1000 to my mortgage payment would be a vastly better investment.

> I personally just don't see the point of having multiple banks manage my accounts.

Have we gotten so deeply nested that we've forgotten the title of the thread?

Also UK, mostly because it's easy to get one account, fairly easy via your phone to get a joint.

I have 3 accounts, one for salary deposits, one for bills and one for spending so that I always know bills are covered every month without thinking about it and my "fun money" being pre-allocated each month helps me be mindful of my spending.

Since moving to that system I've been able to save significantly more each month.

Because banks can have IT outages, and you can have no access to your money until they get resolved. They also can go bust which means you can be waiting a long time for what's left of your money.

Well I use a credit card for almost all my purchases and I don't even need access to my bank to make my monthly payment. I wouldn't split my cash equally between two banks either. That seems silly. If for whatever reason my bank went bankrupt I'd simply open a new account and change my direct deposit at work. It's not really a show stopper. Plus there's federal insurance on all accounts up to 250k.

I think having a second bank for savings/emergency can make sense for a number of reasons (harder to conflate your money, accessible if the first has an issue, etc, better rates, etc).

I have an online centered account and a local one, they serve different purposes.

99% of FDIC receiverships happen over the weekend without a customer disruption.

Multiple accounts in use greatly increases the chance that you have the money but it’s in the wrong place.

Not you're not, but maybe the UK is different.

I too have multiple bank accounts, mainly because in the case of bank failure your deposits are only guaranteed up to something like £80k.

Also, in the UK basic current accounts are free, I doubt this is the case everywhere.

I still have one main account that my wages go into, and all bills come out of. The other account is just a backup.

I think one big difference in the UK is instant payments, if you have money in the wrong account and need to move it you'll be able to do it within a few minutes. If that wasn't the case then it'd probably be a lot more stressful to have your money split up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com